In Your Eyes
by Toxica
Summary: Ever since the slaying of his clan he had been bitter&cold, until a certain cherry blossom appeared in his life. But after leavin Konoha, she drifted further from his mind. Suddenly one mention of her name&it all comes back to him. Now: Sakura or Revenge?
1. Authors Note: IMP READ & Chapter 1

"Not this again Naruto, I don't have time, this village is still in pretty bad shape

**ITS BACK!! DUM DUM DAAAH! ****However…**

**I think I'm going to shoot my computer! Haha :( im so pissed, I had all the chapters of **_**In Your**_** Eyes saved and now theres only 11 chapters in the folder!! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! –cries- ahhhhh I need a hug haha! So whatever, I'll just post it up anyways… I've kept you's all waiting too long and I guess I'll just have to re-write the REST of the story again…–sigh- :( well.. shouldn't take too long for me to re-write everything.. I mean..I do remember what I wrote. Anyways, while waiting for me to re-write this, you's can read my other Sasuke x Sakura story or the Hinata x Naruto one. :) Remember to review anything you read plz.**

**P.s I fixed up honourifics and grammar and all that, plus I changed some parts of most chapters so you might want to re-read. :) Especially chapter 8 – Added a minor fight scene P no more retarded chakra string thingy. Its also got some humour in it so go read it.**

**Toxica**

**xoxoxoxox**

**--**

"Not this again Naruto, I don't have time, this village is still in pretty bad shape. How many times do you have to fail before you realize that there might not be any way to save Sasuke RIGHT at this moment?" Tsunade sighed, trying to block out any sounds of the blonde, knucklehead ninja as she continued to sort through the paper work Shizune had forced her to do.

_-Why put up with this when I could be in a hot spring somewhere, sipping sake-_ she thought to herself.

"Tsunade-baachan! You have to let me go! I'm going with or without your permission," Naruto argued, clenching his fists as he stood in front of Tsunade who looked up urgently and frowned.

"Is that so?" she smirked.

"You better believe it Tsunade-baachan. I won't give up looking for teme, not now, not ever," Naruto reassured her with as much determination as before.

Tsunade dropped her pen and sighed. Bringing two manicured hands up to desk height, she closed her eyes and rubbed her temple gently. This argument had been going on all morning, and didn't seem as if it was going to end any time soon.

Tsunade rose from her chair, looking more annoyed then ever, while Naruto paced slowly around the office in anticipation.

"Naruto-,"she began, resting a slim hand on his shoulder as she knelt down slightly.

"I understand where this is coming from, and I'm impressed by your determination but- you know, you really don't know when to give up kid," Tsunade cut in to her previous sentence.

Naruto glared at her. No matter what she said, he was still going to find Sasuke, not even this old fart could stop him.

"No, I don't know when to give up, because I never give up," he replied bluntly.

Tsunade retrieved her hand from his shoulder, and stood up straight.

_-Can this kid get anymore stubborn? Sheesh-_

She walked over to the windows, and scaled her eyes over Konoha; the view was wonderful from up there, though she wasn't paying much attention to it, her thoughts lay with what she was going to do with Naruto and this situation.

As she continued staring out the windows thoughtfully, she heard impatient footsteps approach her.

"I'm going to find teme, you're wasting my time as much as I'm wasting yours," Naruto sighed, bowing towards Tsunade and making his way for the door.

Tsunade smirked at the comment as she spun around and called after Naruto.

"Yeah?" Naruto replied, arching an eyebrow.

_-Look at the brat, acting all tough-_ she smiled to herself.

"Fine, you can go- again. This time, try getting him back hm? But if you don't, guess it's not like I can stop you from trying again," she chuckled to herself.

Naruto's face lit up as he ran towards Tsunade, throwing his arms around her waist.

"I knew you'd come around Tsunade-baachan!" he laughed.

Tsunade smiled. "You can stop calling me that now. Just be safe Naruto, don't want to lose anymore great shinobi," she nodded.

As they parted, Naruto sped down the hall in a flash and was gone before Tsunade could even blink.

_-Ah, what can I say, that kids got spirit. Hrm, guess I could take a break now -_ she smiled to herself, pushing her paper work onto the floor, reaching for the sake bottle and resting her legs on the table. Sigh.

"And just what do you think you are doing Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently as she stood in the doorway, with her arms crossed.

"Ah, Shizune, you ask me that as if it doesn't have the most obvious answer in the world," Tsunade grinned, as she gently sipped some sake.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune shouted, storming up to Tsunade's desk and snatching the bottle of sake from her hands.

"Alright, alright, I'll get back on to work Sheesh," Tsunade replied, wiping a drop of sweat from her forehead.

Shizune hugged the bottle of sake under her arm and smiled proudly. She won, as always, if Tsunade couldn't keep herself in line then she was going to be the one that would.

**(A/N: HEY DUDES! Yeah, it's a pretty short chapter, shortest in the story I think, but ah well xD hope you enjoyed it and will keep reading. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW PLZZZZZZZZ! FREE HUGS & COOKIES! xD hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxo)**


	2. Approaching Sakura

Sakura sighed, as she sat on a light brown, worn-out park bench, staring down at a beautiful purple and yellow flower

**(A/N: CHAPTER TWO! ENJOY ! R&R PLZ xD)**

Sakura sighed, as she sat on a light brown, worn-out park bench, staring down at a beautiful purple and yellow flower. A tear slowly made its way down her cheek, causing a few strands of blossom colored hair to get stuck to her face. She lifted up a hand and wiped away the tear, while pushing the strands of hair behind her ear.

There hadn't been one day since he left that she wouldn't think of him. Every day felt like hell, as if someone had ripped out her heart and would constantly poke it with various sharp objects. She tried desperately to occupy herself with something so much that she'd get lost in the task and forget about Sasuke all together.

_**-Flashback**__**-**_

"Don't worry Sakura; everything's going to be ok. Sasuke will come back… one day, for sure! Here, take this flower, it's too beautiful to be sold to anyone else," Ino smiled.

**-**_**End Flashback-**_

Sakura continued to stare at the flower glumly. Even as Ino said that, her smile wasn't the genuine type, it was weak, and hollow, as if she wasn't quite sure, or didn't quite believe what she was saying.

As Sakura looked up, she noticed a blonde-haired figure making its way towards here desperately.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted, waving his arms around in the air.

_-Great-_ Sakura thought to herself, she really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now.

"Hi Naruto-kun," Sakura waved, behind a fake smile.

Though Sasuke's departure had torn her asunder, she never truly let anyone know how much it had affected her, however she didn't need to. Naruto, Kakashi and just about everyone else could sense that it had a major impact on her, and Sakura, regardless of the fake smiles or claims of being nothing more then outraged at Sasuke for being a betrayer, wasn't fooling anyone.

"Sakura-chan, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" Naruto asked, resting his hands on his knees and panting.

Sakura looked up at the sky, then back at an exhausted looking Naruto. "Don't see what else I could be doing, Tsunade-sama has no more medic-nin techniques for me to learn right now, and there isn't much to do at the flower shop with Ino,".

She continued to smile weakly at Naruto then looked down at the flower she was holding again. What did he want? Shouldn't Naruto be with Tsunade-sama, trying to convince her to let him on a high rank mission? In between all her thoughts, she could hear Naruto's breaths getting heavier by the minute and looked up at him in question.

"Uh, Naruto-kun are you ok?" Sakura frowned.

"..Help…Sakura-chan" Naruto gasped, dropping to the dusty floor.

Sakura's eyes widened. She dropped the flower on the bench and hurried over to a suffocating Naruto.

"NARUTO-KUN!" She shouted, with a confused expression on her face. _–What the hell is wrong with him?!-_.

"Got you!" Naruto laughed, standing up and dusting himself off, completely proud of himself for being able to trick Sakura with something so simple.

"Grrr. NARUTO!" Sakura growled angrily.

She stepped closer to Naruto and slapped him across the face harshly.

"Ow! It was just a joke! So much for making you smile," Naruto complained, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, as he rubbed his right cheek.

"Hmph. Serves you right," Sakura frowned, walking back to the bench and taking a seat.

She darted her eyes around the bench, searching for the flower she had dropped, while rushing to Naruto's side. The flower had flown onto the dusty ground and all of its petals had fallen off, as if it had been squashed.

_-Must have stepped on it when I was running towards Naruto-kun-_ she frowned angrily. He always managed to mess up something.

"What do you want anyway, Naruto-kun?" Sakura stared at him bitterly.

"Well, I was talking to Tsunade-baachan this morning and she said we could go on another mission to try find Sas…," Naruto stopped.

Although he didn't finish his sentence, he could tell by Sakura's expression that it was best he didn't. The anger that lit up her face previously now had disappeared. She looked at the ground glumly, as if the floor contained much interest.

_**-Flashback-**_

"Sakura….Thank you," Sasuke spoke genuinely.

_**-End Flashback-**_

Sakura gasped.

"Sakura-chan? Are you ok?" Naruto asked, with a concerned expression plastered across his face.

She looked up at the blonde who stood there dumbfounded as ever.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Sakura replied, shaking her head and folding her arms against her chest.

"Ok…so...um...are you..uh, going to come on the Sas-s-," Naruto hesitated again. He wasn't sure how Sakura would react if he spoke of Sasuke, she might be fine with it, but 20 bowls of ramen says she'd go mental or start crying.

"Sasuke-kun! Geez Naruto-kun..," Sakura rolled her eyes, crossing her legs, and chewing on her nails slightly.

_-Why does he have to mention Sasuke-kun? Why?-_

Naruto stared at her in shock and confusion. Was she putting on her tough I-don't-give-a-damn-about-Sasuke-kun act on again, or did she just truly not care?

Catching a glimpse of his expression, Sakura arched an eyebrow.

"What?" she smirked slightly.

"I-I-I just thought you'd be more- I mean you know like have-," Naruto struggled to put a sentence together as Sakura's stare had become more rageful and more intense then ever, as if drilling two holes where his eyes were.

"Oh what? You mean you expected me to have a complete breakdown and start crying, all just at the mention of his name?" Sakura stared at him angrily, pushing some cherry blossom hair forcefully behind her ear as it blew wildly in the slight wind, and whipped her face.

"N-no Sakura-chan, that's not what I meant it's just-".

"I can't believe everyone in this village!" Sakura stormed off angrily, deep down surprised at her own anger. Since Sasuke had left, everyone treated Sakura as if she was unstable, and would avoid mentioning Sasuke incase she had a meltdown.

It was true, she was more upset that Sasuke left, but she couldn't deny the fact that she was sorta mad at him for just leaving her like that when she was completely pouring her heart out to him that night. This little anger usually helped fool people into thinking Sasuke leaving didn't have much impact on her, or so Sakura thought.

"Sakura-chan! Wait," Naruto called after her.

She stopped dead in her tracks and spun around quickly.

"What?" she spat.

"Sakura-chan…I'm s-sorry, just-come," Naruto spoke convincingly, putting a hand on her shoulder, which she tried to brush off but Naruto's grip was too strong.

Silence.

"Look, I know most of the times it looks like I'm a knucklehead and don't have any sense, but that's not entirely true. Atleast I don't think," Naruto chuckled slightly.

Sakura was looking more annoyed by the minute, her lips forming into a straight line.

"Sakura-chan, I know you said that I could bring back teme-uh I mean Sasuke-kun, but the truth is, even though we are best friends, there is only truly one person who can bring him back, because she owns more then his friendship, she owns his heart," Naruto smiled, looking deep into her bright, emerald orbs, hoping that his and Kakashi sensei's assumptions of Sasuke liking Sakura back were correct.

Sakura gasped and her eyes dropped to look at the ground again.

_-Is that true? Does he really like me? Or is Naruto just lying to me so I'll come on the stupid mission?-_ Her thoughts ran wild, for what seemed to her like seconds, was much longer.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, shaking her lightly.

"Mmm? Oh, well, good luck to you and the girl that has his heart," she replied in a smartass-like tone, finally brushing Naruto's grip of her shoulder off. She spun around slowly and continued making her way down the dusty Konoha street.

"Just think about it Sakura-chan, we leave at midnight, meet us at the gates if you're going to come," Naruto reasoned.

"Us?" Sakura asked, turning around, only to find that Naruto had disappeared. She sighed and continued to make her way up the path thoughtfully.

_-Should I go? I'm still sure Naruto's just lying; I mean it is Naruto after all. If he really cared about me like Naruto said, he would have stayed in the village that night. What am I supposed to do?-_

**(A/N: What do you think Sakura will do!? Haha, I'm sure its pretty obvious hehe. Anyways, hope you's are enjoying the story so far, it only gets better from here xD umm REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!! FREE HUGS AND COOKIES AS ALWAYS! xD and my hugs are the best around! And the cOOkies are YUMOLICIOUS! xD ahahaha, lame. Hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxo)**


	3. Sakura's Decision

Sakura sighed, as she stood in the middle of the path, looking up, indecisively, at the moon, which glistened in her emerald orbs

**(A/N: Chapter 3 yo! –dances- HOPE YA LIKE IT!)**

Sakura sighed, as she stood in the middle of the path, looking up, indecisively, at the moon, which glistened in her emerald orbs.

_-__What am I doing? -_ She thought to herself, tugging on the straps of her backpack nervously. For a while she continued to stand there, still wondering wether she should walk forward to the gates, or turn back and unpack.

--

"Argh, where is Sakura-chan!" Naruto squinted into the distance, pacing up and down. With him was Shino, Neji, Hinata, Lee, Shikamaru, Chouji and of course Kiba (with Akamaru snuggled under his parker).

"She might have decided not to come," Neji spoke, coming out of the shadows; he's lilac eyes glowing intensely.

"ARGH! Scare the hell out of me why don't you," Naruto shouted, jumping back slightly as Neji emerged from the shadows. Everyone chuckled at Naruto's stupidity, then went back to whining about where Sakura is.

"T-this must be v-v-very hard for S-s-sakura-chan," Hinata looked down glumly, if anyone, she knew what it was like to be in love and lonely.

Everyone looked at Hinata, as if it was the surprise of the century that she had spoken. She blushed, and hid her face behind her hands, at the point everyone looked away and continued to converse with one another.

--

Sakura, like before, was still standing in the middle of the path arguing with herself. She'd take 3 steps forwards, only to take 4 steps back. She threw her bag on the ground and sat awhile.

_-You'll never know if he likes you or not if you don't go. But what if he doesn't? What if we even die on this mission? Clearly he doesn't want to be saved. Naruto-kun can be so damn stubborn sometimes… I mean all the time. Well…I do want Sasuke-kun back…but…argh, why is this so hard-_

For ages she sat there, leaned up on her backup, getting lost in her thoughts, a few tears escaping from her eyes every now and then. What was stopping her most was the fact she was sure it would end bad, and she didn't want to get hurt again.

--

Akamaru titled his head up in alert, and sniffed around the area. He looked up at Kiba, and barked softly.

"What? Sakura's just up ahead?" Kiba asked, looking down at his cute companion.

The group stopped talking and looked at Kiba at the mention of Sakura's name. They crowded around him as Akamaru barked in confirmation.

"Good boy Akamaru," Kiba smiled petting him gently.

"What? What? What he say about Sakura-chan?" Naruto nagged impatiently, jumping up and down.

"According to Akamaru she's just up ahead, to think of it I did smell someone else's scent other then ours a bit ago, but I guess I wasn't paying much attention to it," Kiba replied.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go!" Naruto ordered, running forward, and waving for the rest of the group to do so as well.

--

_-Guess I'll just go back, I know Sasuke__-kun doesn't feel the same way about me, its just not like him, if I go now, I'll just be wasting my time, missing out on future medic-nin classes and risking my life- _Sakura nodded to herself, picking herself up off the ground and slinging the backpack, back on her shoulders.

She stood looking at the sky one last time, a few tears making their way down her face, when suddenly; she heard a voice, yelling from the distance.

_-What the?-_

"Sakura-chan! YOU CAME!" the obvious voice of Naruto yelled.

Sakura quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and acted calm and collected. Naruto's eyes sparkled as he looked up at her, for a while, he and the rest of them, really thought that she wasn't going to come.

"Hey Naruto-kun," she smiled her best.

"We found you thanks to Akamaru! We didn't think you were going to come," Naruto smiled, happy to see Sakura.

"Well I wasn't, actually I was on my way to-,".

"Ah then why are you standing out here? So you still are in love with teme hrm?" Naruto cut in, chuckling lightly and making kissing noises. Naruto had long finished crushing on Sakura, and had started to majorly crush a shy Hyuuga girl.

Sakura froze before responding, after all, it was true. "I just thought it would be great to watch you getting your ass kicked by Sasuke-kun again," she sniggered, followed by a light laugh. Wow, it was a real laugh.

Naruto turned red with rage, but didn't say anything as Shino stared at him intensely.

_-Man, he's creepy- _Naruto laughed in his head.

"Are we ready to go? Waiting around is kind of a drag," Shikamaru sighed, slipping his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, we should start making our way to the rest destination," Chouji nodded, his voice

muffled by the food he was stuffing into his mouth, at every second word spoken.

"Rest destination? We haven't even started to venture out of Konoha, and you want to rest?" Neji frowned at Chouji.

_-I hope I'm doing the right thing- _Sakura thought to herself as she let herself be tugged along the road by Naruto. She looked up at the sky again and stumbled slightly.

"You better watch where you're going Sakura-chan, or you're going to fall over," Naruto grinned stupidly.

Sakura smiled, and slapped his shoulder lightly.

A real smile.

At that moment, being surrounded by everyone, actually improved her mood, IT WAS FUN. However, her thoughts of Sasuke **weren't**forgotten. She would occasionally stop mid laughter and realise where she was going, and how she let herself be dragged out of Konoha by Naruto, but everyone did their best to keep her mind of their destination and goal for a while.

**(A/N: Watchya think people? xD I feel bad for Sakura ( poor thing! ****Ooooo and yes, I am hinting at a NarutoxHinata pairing in one of the paragraphs up there. As you can tell I'm a big fan of the SasuSaku and NaruHina pairing teehee, I'm going to be writing the NaruHina after this story, so if you like that pairing, make sure you look out for my story xD Anyways, hope you guys liked it and will continue reading. **

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**Hehe hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxo)**


	4. Things On Sasuke's End

"You can take a break now," Orochimaru nodded suavely, in the direction of Sasuke who was panting and squatting slightly, his onyx eyes locked on Orochimaru

**(A/N: Chapter 4! This is an all Sasuke chapter xD**** (guest staring Kabuto and a little of Orochimaru) so you can see how things on his end are! R&R plzzzzz! xD)**

"You can take a break now," Orochimaru nodded suavely, in the direction of Sasuke who was panting and squatting with his hands resting on his knees.

As he stood up, Sasuke bowed, and snatched a towel from Kabuto's hand, who flinched at Sasuke's vigorous snatch. Orochimaru disappeared into his chamber and Kabuto escorted Sasuke into his lab to heal some of his wounds. Sasuke wiped his forehead and well toned body with the white towel, threw it on the ground, Kabuto could pick it up later when they were done healing his wounds.

As they made their way there, the two hardly spoke. Kabuto had tried to start conversation many a time, but Sasuke would either nod, or ignore Kabuto's words intentionally. Why would he want to talk to Kabuto anyway?

When they reached the lab door, Kabuto tugged at his belt, retrieving keys that had been tied around one of the studs securely. He fondled the keys trying to find the right one for the door's lock, the jingle echoed through the chamber, which caused Sasuke to look up from his feet. He glared at Kabuto, who smiled weakly, as if to say "Can you hurry up Kabuto? The jingle's really getting on my nerves". Finally finding the right key to the tall, wooden door, Kabuto reached out a hand and creaked it open slowly. It sounded as if it were going to snap any minute.

Inside the lab was pretty neat; Kabuto seemed to be a very organised guy. On the right side there were many bookcases all labelled in alphabetical order from potion recipes, to general medic-nin information and even ninja records for those who had been in his care. The north side had an electrical set up, screen next to screen, with views of the whole mansion, one screen caught Sasuke's eyes as it continually displayed stats of different ninja's, even the ones he knew.

Next to that, was a bed, which seemed to be the only thing that looked somewhat un-attended to in the room. South of the bed were different cabinets, with herbs and tools in them, also labelled in alphabetical order, from ones he'd need to use most, to the ones he'd need to use least. Sasuke continued to dart his eyes around the room, as he sat comfortably on the bed.

Seemed like Kabuto was a neat freak.

"Here, this'll take care of those nasty wounds," Kabuto smiled, pushing his glasses up a tiny bit.

"Hn," Sasuke replied taking the white-green bandaids from Kabuto's hands.

Kabuto rolled his eyes "I believe the correct term is thankyou,".

Sasuke glared at him.

_-I believe I don't care- _he thought to himself, causing a smirk to appear on his face.

"So, then what do you think of Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked, leaning on a chair. The sweat on his face, was causing the glasses to slide down the ridge of his nose again. He sighed slightly, and pushed them back up into place staring impatiently at Sasuke who had yet to answer his question.

"You don't like talking much do you? I've tried to start conversation over a dozen times by now," Kabuto tried again.

Sasuke chased Kabuto, who was now pacing up and down the lab, with his onyx eyes, as he struggled to wrap the bandages around his wounds.

"Oh, do you need help with that?" Kabuto smiled, pressing a finger to the side of his lips in question.

Sasuke nodded negatively, but Kabuto insisted on helping him out anyways.

"Do you miss… Konoha?" Kabuto asked him, concentrating on wrapping the bandages correctly. He slightly tilted his head upwards, to avoid his glasses from falling off and smashing into the rough stone that covered the ground.

Sasuke sighed. **When was this guy ever going to give up?**

"I don't care, I only have one thing in mind," Sasuke replied bluntly.

Kabuto slowed the pace of the bandage-wrapping for a second as he stood there astounded at the fact that Sasuke had actually replied to something he said, not a proper answer, but A answer, nonetheless.

"I can't believe Naruto still hasn't given up trying to save you, that kid must be completely mental or something not to get it, no doubt he'll be on his way again" Kabuto joked, chuckling slightly.

Sasuke tensed up at the mention of Naruto, which Kabuto had taken notice to as he shot him a glance.

"Was it something I said?" he smiled wickedly.

"Just hurry up, I've got more training to do," Sasuke snapped at him, turning his head in the opposite direction to break eye contact.

Kabuto continued to smile. Aha, so those were Sasuke's weak spots.

_-No harm in going a little further, I think I'll play with him, all in good fun- _Kabuto thought to himself.

"I wonder how everyone else feels, your friends, especially that pink-haired girl, what was her name, uh, slipped my mind, um it was-,".

"Sakura…" Sasuke said in a glum tone, frozen in spot.

Noticing the change in Sasuke's expression and tone, Kabuto smiled even more. It was working.

"Yeah, that was it, she must be completely torn. You're an evil guy Sasuke-san," Kabuto commented, staring directly into Sasuke's onyx eyes, but not getting a response.

Sasuke's grim glare remained in lock with the ground. Sakura. The mention of her name, and his heart felt as if it would explode, and there was also that knot in the stomach he'd get. That night he left her, just the look in her eyes, and seeing those tears fall from her face onto the ground, nearly had convinced him to stay, but he shook his head, and convinced himself it was all nonsense, that she was just another fan girl getting in his way of what he really wanted and even if he did love her, he couldn't afford to get distracted from killing Itachi. He couldn't do anything, until Itachi was taken care of.

_**-Flashback-**_

"I love you so much I can barely stand it," Sakura cried into the empty night, tears streaming down her face.

_**-End Flashback-**_

Kabuto stared at him intensely.

Silence.

"Broken-hearted I'd imagine she'd be," Kabuto teased.

Sasuke broke out of his dreamed state and scowled at Kabuto who smiled, he was pretty pleased with himself, and he loved aggravating people for no reason.

_-Bastard, I see what he's trying to do- _Sasuke realised.

Sasuke clenched his unoccupied fist in anger, and pushed Kabuto away from him. Grabbing a hold of Kabuto's neck, he lifted him up and slammed him up against a stone wall.

The stones rough surface, dug into Kabuto's back, causing him to wiggle around exasperating in pain as Sasuke's grip tightened.

"My past is none of your business. You won't speak to me unless it is an order from Orochimaru-sama got it? If not, I will kill you," Sasuke threatened in serious tone.

"..O-o-ok-k-k..," Kabuto struggled to say, gasping for air.

Sasuke retrieved his hand and let Kabuto fall to the ground.

_-__Wait, why'd I get so worked up? Kuso! that feelings back again…_

**Inner Sasuke:** You love Sakura-chan, na na na na naaa! I told you last time when you left Konoha, but you wouldn't listen.

_Psht, as if. I don't l-love S-Saku, __kuso, I can't even say it._

**Inner Sasuke:** It's because you love Sakura and you always have, but you're too ignorant and proud for your own good! Teehee.

_Shut up!-_Sasuke frowned in confusion as he walked out of the lab, continuing to wrap the bandages that were left dangling.

As Sasuke exited the lab, Kabuto had managed to get up and was struggling to breath, coughing every now and then. He massaged his neck with one and hand, and picked up his glasses with the other. During Sasuke's outburst, they had tumbled onto the ground, and one of the lenses had broken.

"Stupid brat has anger issues; I was just trying to have some fun. You just wait Uchiha Sasuke, Orochimaru-sama's got plans for you," he smiled bitterly, evil laughter filling the room.

**(A/N: YEAAAH TAKE THAT KABUTO! Haha, as you can tell, I don't like Kabuto very much, he's a bitch! xD Hope you's liked this chapterrrr! Remember to review!!**

_**R E V I E W!**_** AND FOR THIS CHAPTER ONLY, YOU'LL GET A NARUTO CHARACTER PLUSHIE OF YOUR CHOICE, ALONG WITH A HUG AND A COOKIE WHEN YOU REVIEW! DON'T MISS OUT! Haha, plz review? xD **

**Hope you's are well xoxoxoxo)**


	5. Dreams

"S-Sakura

**(A/N:**** The start of this chapter is like.. me trying to do slight humour haha, I know its stupid, but I wanted to have Shikamaru have some smart ass line xD and well, it worked xD! R&R plz!)**

"S-Sakura-chan?" Hinata mumbled softly, slightly nudging Sakura, to wake her up.

Sakura forced out 'Mmm' and waved Hinata away, turning onto her side and continuing to sleep. Hinata sighed inwardly.

"Sakura-chan, I j-just wanted to let you k-know that I'm g-going to go by the lake and f-f-freshen up a bit, so if you wanted to do the same, we could go together while the b-b-boys set up breakfast," Hinata smiled sweetly, nudging Sakura gently once more.

Sakura turned around to face Hinata and nodded in agreement. Hinata smiled back at her and walked back to her tent to get clean clothes.

_-Ah, I'm so tired. What time is it?- _Sakura thought to herself as she sat up rubbing her eyes. After not long of setting off on this mission yesterday night, many of them had gotten tired and decided to set up camp.

Sakura reached over to her pink back pack, spilling out its contents in front of her. She yes-ed and no-ed some clothes before folding the ones she didn't want and putting them back into the back pack.

"Sakura-chan, I'm going to m-make my way to the l-lake, I'll see you there," Hinata called from the tent next to her.

"Hold on, I'm coming," Sakura shouted back, stripping down and walking out of the tent, half trying to wrap a towel around herself while trying not to make her clean clothes fall on the ground. This resulted in her towel completely falling off.

All that was heard was gasps.

As she looked up, she froze and her face turned even more red then a tomato.

"Ahhh, you guys are perverts!" she squealed, snatching her towel up from the ground and rushing back into the tent.

"Woah, Sakura-chan," Naruto grinned, blushing a little.

"She calls us perverts, yet she's the one walking around naked, girls, such a drag," Shikamaru shrugged, picking up a piece of toast and shoving it in his mouth.

Sakura sighed, as she stared down at the floor of her tent in embarrassment. She didn't want to go back out, they'd probably tease her. Sakura quickly slipped on some new clothes and snuggled back into her sleeping bag, falling asleep.

--

Sasuke drummed his fingers on his stomach, as he laid down in his bed, staring at the dark ceiling. For the first time since he got here, he found himself less occupied with thoughts of Itachi and more with thought of Sakura. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't block out his thoughts of her. He found it weird, and surprisingly enough, actually hurt him thinking about the way he just left her there that night. Kabuto was right, he was indeed an evil guy.

_-I miss it, ya know, seeing those innocent looking, emerald coloured orbs of hers looking up at m__e, as she asked me to hang out, she looked so cute. The way her arms wrapped around me that time she held me from behind, as if they were meant to be there. Her smile, I want to see that smile-_

"What?!" Sasuke spat out, out loud as he sat up, and leaned on the wall.

He ran his fingers through his hair and darted his eyes around the room, in complete shock of what he had just thought.

_-Woah, g__et a grip, you do not like or love her, she's just an annoying fan girl, she's more annoying then dobe sometimes-_ he convinced himself. A smile spread across his face as he lay back down, completely convinced that he was just joking around with himself. A couple blinks later, he fell asleep. Sasuke was obviously in complete denial.

--

**-Start ****dream-**

As the sun set over Konoha, on a green hill, sat a shadow of a couple. Sasuke had his arms gently over Sakura, and she lay on his chest, sighing as she looked up at him every now and then.

The two continued to sit there in complete silence, though they weren't say anything, it was as if feeling the beauty of each others presences was enough, they we're happy.

Sasuke smiled and looked down at his girlfriend. She was so beautiful, there wasn't a girl in the world as beautiful to him as she was. She was smart, kind, caring, beautiful and pure. _–Amazing-_ he thought to himself, gently leaning down and kissing her forehead.

She giggled and fidgeted at the touch of his lips, her cheeks slightly tinting a light pink.

After a few moments, she softly slide out of his grip and sat behind him. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and her arms gripped onto his chest. Sasuke sighed, and cupped his hands over hers. She smiled, and reached over, kissing his neck slowly, licking from his collar bone to his ear, causing Sasuke to let out manly moan.

"You're so cute," Sakura giggled.

"Cute? Is that so?" Sasuke smirked, turning around and tackling her to the ground.

"It's true," she nodded, looking up at Sasuke with her sparkling emerald eyes.

Sasuke smiled and kissed her passionately, their tongues pressing together violently. Sasuke then returned back to his former sitting spot. Sakura wiped the little amount of saliva from her lips and crawled over to him, fitting herself back into his loving embrace.

They continued to stare at the sunset.

Sasuke stroked the fringe our of Sakura's eyes as she looked up at him innocently.

"I love you Sakura Haruno, never forget that, you'll always be mine,".

In hearing this Sakura's whole face lit up and she blushed once more, not being able to look at him, thinking he'd be put off by her stupid girly grin.

"Look at me, you're gorgeous," Sasuke whispered into her ear resting a finger onto her chin, and lifting it up slowly. The feel of his warm breath on her skin, caused her to shiver in pleasure.

She smiled, and kissed him on the cheek lovingly

"I love you too Sasuke Uchiha, always have, I'm forever yours," Sakura smiled as they cuddled.

"That's what I thought," Sasuke smirked, holding her closer, and resting his head on her shoulder.

**-End Dream-**

"Sakura…" Sasuke mumbled in midst of his sleep, his face becoming uncomfortable as if he was losing something too soon. From a dark corner of Sasuke's room, Kabuto emerged out of the shadows, smiling as he stared at Sasuke. "Well what do you know, the Uchiha's in love," he sniggered, pushing his glasses up the ridge of his nose and folding his arms.

"Sasuke-kun…" Sakura sighed in her sleep as she fidgeted. Hinata and Naruto looked down at her. "Guess she's not over him after all," Naruto said, in a serious tone.

--

**(A/N:** **Haha I love Shikamaru's line at the start, its so him if I may say so. YAY FOR FLUFF! A tear actually slid down my cheek when I was writing that, I just thought it was so adorable xD haha hope you's like the chapter! Hope you're not losing interest! REVIEW PLZ!! FREE HUGS AND COOKIES AS ALWAYS!  
Hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxo)**


	6. Untitled

"There it is, took us forever to find this place last time" Shikamaru pointed to an area not far from them

**(A/N: drum roll TADA! Chapter 6!! xD enjoyyyy ppl! R&R plz)**

"There it is. Took us forever to find this place last time" Shikamaru pointed to an area not far from them, panting, and wiping some sweat from his forehead.

It was dark and trashed looking. A mansion, more like a castle, stood in the middle. The grasses usually spring green had faded into a nasty brown-yellow colour, and it looked rough. The tree's had lost all their leaves, and their trunks we're split and black. Besides from it being night, it was kinda hard for any of them to see because of the amount of fog that hung around in the air.

Hinata's eyes widened at the view. She desperately held onto Naruto's sleeve and forced her eyes closed. Naruto, sensing her fear, gently wrapped his arm around her, and held her close, her breaths getting short as he did. Kiba frowned at the two and tried to do the same with Sakura, but she waved him off as she stood up with a strong, determined expression on her face.

"So, what is the plan?" Lee asked looking at them all one at a time.

"We don't need a plan! We're badass ninja! Anything comes our way, we can take it!" Naruto explained with his hands waving around in the air, releasing Hinata from his grip, causing her to look down glumly at the ground.

"You'd think after all the times you've done this, you'd realise we NEED a plan," Kiba smirked, petting Akamaru who barked happily at his remark.

Naruto folded his arms, jerking his head in the opposite direction and pouted.

"Settle down, ah, this is going to be such a drag," Shikamaru groaned, slapping himself lightly on the forehead.

"Let's set up camp nearby. We need rest, and of course, a plan," Shino spoke reasonably; it had been ages since he had said something, and most of them had forgotten he was even there.

"Shino-san's right, we can't go into this blind," Sakura sighed. Truthfully, she wanted to run up to the door, kick it down and yell "Sasuke-kun!" as she ran down its halls, but she knew that the smart thing to do was take Shino's advice.

"But, but, but, I WANNA GO NOW! I need to save teme!" Naruto whined, jumping up and down.

"Shut up Naruto-kun!" Sakura shouted, whacking him over the head.

--

After arguing about where to set up camp, they finally found an inviting spot nearby Orochimaru's hideout.

"Ah, this is mental! Why can't they make a build-tent-jutsu or something!?" Naruto whined, clutching pieces of metal from his tent under his arms, as he flipped the instructions from side to side. Everyone stared at him, lightly giggling as the blonde stood there dumbfounded.

"What makes you think you'll be able to understand the instructions properly if they're upside down?" Kiba chuckled. Naruto glared at him and quickly turned his attention back to the instructions, which he stopped turning after realising Kiba had a clear point.

"I'll help you set it up later Naruto-kun," Lee offered, dusting his hands off, as he got up off the ground. He and Neji had just finished making the fire, and everyone was pretty quick to huddle around it as it was freezing more then usual on this night.

"Sit in a circle closer to each other," Shikamaru ordered, rubbing his hands together as he shivered. Naruto sighed and dropped all his tent parts on the floor, rushing towards the warm fire.

"All sit around Chouji," Kiba laughed, as he petted Akamaru who whimpered from the cold.

Chouji looked up from his snacks, and lowered the chip he was about to stuff into his mouth. He turned to face Kiba and scowled at him.

Shikamaru sighed, and patted his best friend on the back, who smiled back at him, as he continued to dig into his snacks.

"Come closer Hinata-chan, I'm freezing!" Naruto shivered, wrapping his arm around Hinata and pulling her closer.

"N-n-n-n-naru-," Hinata blushed uncontrollably.

Naruto frowned at her, as he noticed deep red appear in her cheeks.

"Hinata, do you have a fever again?" he asked, tilting his head to the side dumbfoundedly. She blushed even more then before and snuggled her head under her jumper.

Shino and Kiba let out a slight chuckle and shook their heads in disbelief.

_-How dumb do you have to be not to know that she likes him? Poor girl can't even finish her sentence- _Kiba nodded to himself.

As Naruto bombarded Kiba and Shino with questions on why they were laughing at him and everyone else conversed casually, Sakura was the only one that remained quite the whole time, sitting just a bit further from the rest of them. She was completely lost in her thoughts, and they weren't easy to ignore. She shook her head, to break her thoughtful state, and stood up dusting her rear end.

With his arm still slinged around Hinata, and a huge grin on his face as he laughed along with everyone else, Naruto quickly jerked his head behind him as he heard footsteps.

"Sakura-chan, where are you going?" he frowned.

Sakura turned around slowly, surprised that someone had notice her get up. "Just going for a walk, sitting down has made me a bit stiff," she sighed. Really, she just needed some time alone, even from her friends. She needed quite time, and the way they were carrying on, she didn't think that was possible.

Naruto looked at her intensely. They communicated through expressions. In the end, he smiled at her sweetly and waved as she turned away, flipping her hair from her shoulder.

_-I hope nothing bad happens to her- _Naruto thought to himself as he averted his gaze back to the group.

--

Sakura sighed as she walked through the forest like area, ducking every now and then, pushing back the sharp branches as they stuck out of the trees, to avoid getting scratched.

_-I guess sometimes I wish I never came, this is too much. He wont come back to Konoha, he wont come back to his friends…he wont come back to… me__...- _Sakura thought to herself, as she squatted in front the river, passing her fingers across the waters surface. Its waters glistened in the moonlight and looked beautiful. Sakura picked up a rock from the ground and attempted to make it skip as she threw it across the river. It skipped twice, then plopped, and began sinking, just like her heart had sunk, that night when Sasuke left her. She sighed, and sat with her back against a tree, her thoughts still running wild.

_-He'__s always been so selfish-like and reserved, I mean, Naruto-kun's tried to bring him back before right? What makes this time any different?_

**Inner Sakura:** 'cause you're here dummy!

_That __doesn't matter, I don't mean anything to Sasuke and I never will._

**Inner Sakura:** Oh come one, I'm sure he feels something! Remember what Naruto said?

_Well…uh…I-I trust Naruto__-kun, just not about stuff like that…_

**Inner Sakura:** Why not? You don't wanna miss out if its true do you? Come on, we want it, you know we do! **Cha!**

_..._

She sat there for the longest time, arguing with herself, only to resolve nothing.

As she walked back to camp, she could see everyone had just gone to sleep as the smoke still seeped from the camp fire wood. She stepped over a few items that we're left on the ground and unzipped her tent. During her walk, her throat had become dry; from all the times she had to force herself not to cry, so she grabbed a water bottle from her backpack and re-hydrated. Wiping the water that had escaped from her mouth to her chin, she closed the cap of the bottle and packed it away in her backpack.

Sakura snuggled into her sleeping bag, and threw some blankets on top. She could feel herself starting to feel uneasy about the mission. She quickly sat back up alarmed, and pulled out a flower-patterned notebook and a pen from her backpack. Maybe she'd relax and be less confused if she could just see all her thoughts written down. And so she began to write;

_I'm just so confused; __my hearts telling me I made the right decision coming here, and theres still hope, not to give up until it's inevitable that we will fail! I wonder if he loves me…Argh, my heads telling me that it's over and done, and Sasuke-kun isn't going to come back… like he'll love me.. He's never had feelings for anyone, in anyway.._

Sakura stared at the page blankly before closing the notebook and slipping it under her pillow as she slid down to the ground.

"I wonder how you're doing Sasuke-kun," she sighed, blinking her eyes once more, before closing them and letting slumber grasp her.

--

**2 days later:**

Sasuke yelped as a small rock on the ground dug into his ribs. He was already in so much pain, this training session with Orochimaru turned out to be everything but that. He didn't learn anything, wasn't given any power enhancing medicines or elixirs, he simply had to fight Orochimaru, and regardless that he was pretty powerful and Orochimaru's hands we're sealed, he was still getting the crap beaten out of him. Distracted perhaps? The passed few days had been weird, as if Sasuke had gotten weaker some how.

"Mm," Sasuke murmured in pain, coughing, as he lazily picked himself off the ground, clutching his stomach with one hand, and wiping some blood from the side of his lip with the other. Sasuke took two slow steps forward, and his legs caved in under him, causing his body to slam back down to the ground. More blood trickled down the side of his lip, and created a little pool, on the ground just under his mouth. He panted, and at times didn't even have the strength to breathe in.

_-Get up Uchiha- _he yelled to himself inside his head, turning on his side, using one of his arm muscles to prop himself, to atleast sit up.

Kabuto watched Sasuke struggle to get up, he smiled. He was totally loving this. Orochimaru at this moment was lifting his head up, gloating over the fact that he had beaten Sasuke even without using his dangerous techniques due to his arms being sealed.. However the gloating-ness soon faded, as a hint of wonder made its way into his wicked snake-like eyes. He stared at his soon to be vessel, and walked over to him.

"What's wrong Sasuke-kun? Is something bothering you? Or maybe you're just not as strong as I thought you were," Orochimaru smirked, kicking Sasuke over on his stomach.

Sasuke choked, spitting out some more blood as he flipped, face to face with the ground. Orochimaru continued to smirk and walked over to where he was previously standing. Sasuke watched the back of him walk away, blinking rapidly, as he noticed his vision getting blurry.

_-What the?- _he thought, a slight panic arising in him.

Orochimaru laced his fingers together, and looked down in deep thought. Though he had not been notified of the incident, ever since Kabuto had mentioned Konoha, Sasuke's concentration had diminished. It was as if the mention of his bonds with his old life had broken him down.

_-__Perhaps a negative reaction to one of the elixirs? – _Orochimaru thought, rubbing his chin in thought.

He suavely lifted a finger, and gestured for Kabuto to walk over to him. Cupping a hand over his mouth, he whispered something into Kabuto's ear, which caused Kabuto to jerk his head back and shake his head in disagreement. Orochimaru glared at him as his lips formed the words 'Are you sure?' Kabuto nodded furiously, pushing his glasses up the ridge of his nose.

Sasuke watched the two through blurred vision with interest. What were they talking about?

After having, what looked like a slight disagreement, the two parted and Orochimaru started to approach Sasuke, who still remained on the floor, inwardly screaming of pain. He paced up and down the length of Sasuke's body, and squatted down towards Sasuke's ear.

"Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun," he shook his finger from side to side as he smirked. "I'm starting to see how much of a mistake this was. You're weak Sasuke, if you cannot beat me, a –well Handicapped ninja, what makes you think you stand a chance to beat someone of Itcahi's calibre?" he chuckled slightly.

"You were fine a couple days ago, perhaps you had a negative reaction to the elixir, it made you weaker, then _you already are_ I mean, how very unfortunate for you," Orochimaru hissed.

Sasuke's eyes widened in outrage as he struggled to speak.

"W-wh-at are you getting at?" Sasuke coughed.

Orochimaru sighed.

"Honestly Sasuke-kun, I have no further use for you, my vessel can't be weak, guess I'll just have to find another one," he smiled evilly.

"Vessel? What are you talking about," Sasuke continued to cough. The pool of blood near his lip was expanding; it was a miracle that he hadn't already died from blood loss.

_-This just can't get any better- _Kabuto smiled to himself.

"Hrm, yes, you see Sasuke-kun, after you 'killed' Itachi, I had plans of my own for you. You're a smart boy, figure it out. Today, was the first test of many to see if you were ready, but…" he paused.

Sasuke's breath quickened. How could he have not seen this from the start?

"But what!" he growled, glaring at Orochimaru more coldly then he had ever glared at anyone before.

Orochimaru's laughter filled the room.

"You're just a sad excuse for real power. I want real power, I want –Uzumaki Naruto," Orochimaru hissed slyly.

_-Naruto? Why is it always him? WHY? First Itachi wants him, now Orochimaru too?- _Sasuke thought to himself, angered twice as much as he was before.

Regardless of how powerful Sasuke was, he couldn't help but feel as if he stood in the shadow of his best friend. Once again, he attempted to stand up, only to get slammed down by Orochimaru. He slammed his foot on top of Sasuke's back, applying more pressure by the second. Sasuke couldn't take it anymore; he let out a groan of pain that echoed in the room.

"Hm, pathetic. Kabuto-kun, escort Uchiha into one of the cells, we'll use him for something later on I'm sure. In the mean time, try tracking down Naruto-kun for me," Orochimaru smiled wickedly, gesturing Kabuto to follow his instructions as he vanished into his chamber and slammed the door behind him causing a loud clap sound to echo through the room.

Sasuke felt himself fading, every breath felt like his last. Kabuto marched over to him slyly, managing to sneak in a quick, forceful kick, to the side of Sasuke's ribs. Sasuke screamed as he felt his ribs shatter.

"Don't touch me you bastard," Sasuke growled, using every last bit of his strength and force to push Kabuto back away from him. Kabuto laughed, as he fell back on his hands. He closed his eyes and performed a few hand-signs.

"What-" Sasuke was cut off. His body completely slumped to the ground as he became unconscious.

"I told you, you we're going to get it Uchiha. Karma," Kabuto whispered into the unconscious body on the ground.

As Kabuto threw Sasuke into the cell carelessly, Sasuke's body slammed to the ground, and Kabuto was sure he heard another bone crack.

After this, I think I like Orochimaru-sama even more then before, I never could have imagined something this good would happen," Kabuto remarked, as he tugged the key out of the cell lock, giving one last look at the beaten body of Sasuke, before slamming the main door to the cells, causing Sasuke to flinch.

In betweens a few groans of pain, "Sakura-chan…" was all Sasuke whispered.

**(A/N:**** Awwww poor Sasuke :( ! Yeah well things'll get better I promise xD Omg, so you want to hear a lame story? I got this bunny plushie with chocolates for Easter and lots of other presents right? And I named the bunny NARUTO! Obsessed much? Haha xD I'm a lame-o! hahaha anyways umm hope you's are liking the story REMEMBER TO REVIEW FOR HUGS AND COOKIES! PLZ xD**

**Hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxo)**


	7. Quest

"Lee-san

_**3**__** DAYS LATER**_ **(A/N: meaning 1 day after Sasuke got thrown into the cells. It took Naruto and his group 3 days to make a solid plan haha xD R&R plz)**

"Lee-san!" Sakura shouted in distress, as she hurried over to the green spandex wearing ninja. He looked pale, groaning of pain as he clutched his ankle.

"What happened?!" Sakura asked, looking up at Shikamaru with her emerald eyes as she rested a hand on Lee's shoulder.

Shikamaru yawned, and shrugged, glancing over at Neji in response.

"We were out getting fire wood, and some rocks collapsed, falling on his ankle," Neji explained staring down at Lee in concern.

"Fuzzy brows, are you ok?" a bubbly voice came from behind Neji. Lee managed to smile as he saw Naruto jumping up and down trying to see over Neji, Shikamaru and Sakura.

"I am ok, are we ready for the mission?" Lee asked, trying his hardest to not let any tears fall from his eyes.

"Mission? You shouldn't be considering that, in your condition," Shino pointed out, as he creeped up behind Naruto.

_-Argh! Why does he always have to do that__? - _Naruto thought, as he jumped back slightly.

"Shino-san's right, an injured ankle is a lot more troublesome then you would think. Even if Sakura healed it, it still wouldn't be 100 well. What a drag," Shikamaru yawned, stretching his hands behind his head.

"I am fine, I need to do this, GAI-SENSEI would never quit if he was in my position!" Lee shouted in a determined-like manner, punching a fist into the air as he sat up.

"Yeah, yeah alright, don't even start with that spring of youth crap or whatever," Kiba joked, shoving a piece of toast into his mouth.

Lee scowled at him before returning to his determined expression. He let out a barely audible groan of pain as he let go of his ankle and tried to regain posture.

"Lee-kun you don't look very healthy, you should stay back with the others, I don't want to see you get even more hurt! I'm sorry to bring this up, but you remember what happened last time you pushed yourself too much," Sakura pleaded, as he leaned on her for support, so his skeleton wouldn't come crashing down.

He looked at her; he couldn't say no to those eyes, besides, she had a point. Last time he pushed himself too much, his ninja-career was nearly over. Someone would just have to replace him this time. He nodded at her, and gestured for Neji and Naruto to help him over to his tent.

Sakura let out a sigh of relief, resting a hand on her chest. They hadn't even entered Orochimaru's lair and someone was already hurt.

_-It only gets worse from here- _she thought to herself.

Hinata gazed at Naruto and Neji as they carried Lee into his tent.

_-I hope he's ok- _she sighed, as she played with her fingers, looking down at the ground. She felt her cheeks get hot as she saw a pair of shoes in front of her.

"Are you worried about Lee-san?".

She noticed that voice, it was; "N-n-Naruto-kun," she stuttered, trying to avoid eye contact at all costs. He chuckled; she knew by now he'd have that silly grin on his face that she loved.

Silence.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, I'm sure he'll be fine," Naruto smiled, his shoulder brushing passed Hinata's arm as he walked over to the area around the camp fire where Neji and Kiba were going over the plan, arguing every now and then.

Hinata sighed as he walked away. She sometimes hated the fact that she was so shy around him.

--

(**A/N: THE TEAM- Sakura, Shikamaru, Naruto, Neji, Kiba & Akamaru. Time: 11pm**)

Because of Lee's injury, Shikamaru offered to take his place, after stating over a million times how much of a "drag" it was going to be and how missions were always so "troublesome".

"Guys, be quite! We're going to get caught if you's yell any louder," Sakura pouted, poking Neji and Kiba on the shoulder with force.

"Ouch!" They synced.

"She's right you know," Shikamaru glared at the two who were previously fighting about which entrance to take and other possibilities to approach the hideout.

Kiba was suggesting they slip through the front door of the mansion/castle as it would be easier to find their way around, considering lighting and all. Neji, on the other hand, in response said if they were to just burst through the front door, their would be more of a chance of them getting caught then if they took the underground cave entrance to the left of the building.

"I still say we should take the front door. I mean look at the entrance of the cave, knowing Orochimaru, at the end of it theres a mutated ninja, that'll kick our asses," Kiba spat out, rubbing his shoulder where Sakura had poked him.

"That's the easiest way to get caught, I'm guessing those fleas finally got to your head," Neji smirked.

"Bring it on Hyuuga," Kiba growled, letting Akamaru jump out of his parker and take his place next to him.

"Byakugan!". Neji's eyes light up in the darkness of the night.

"Enough guys! Honestly, I'm sick and tired of you's arguing, this might be the last time we ever see each other and all you's want to do is argue," Sakura shouted as she stood in between them, catching their attention.

"Oii, Sakura-chan me and Shikamaru haven't even said any-,".

"Shut-up Naruto-kun!" she cut in, burying her face into her hands and lightly sobbing. Naruto gasped, as he heard a single tear, hit the faded grass.

All four looked down at her apologetically. Naruto took a few steps towards Sakura and threw an arm around her.

"Sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto apologised, as she wiggled out of his half embrace. Neji and Kiba, nodded, agreeing to Naruto's words while Shikamaru slapped his forehead lightly. She looked up at the boys and wiped the tears from her eyes, a weak version of her signature smile spreading across her face.

"It's ok guys, I-I should be sorry for going off like that. It's just- I don't want to see you lose your lives. If we want to have a good percentage of succeeding, we need to work together. No more fights, please," Sakura explained, looking down glumly at the ground in slight embarrassment.

"It's ok, it was the right thing to do, helping your team-mates, who, for a second, completely lost their minds," Shikamaru frowned, watching Neji and Kiba apologise to each other.

Silence.

"So… which way are we going?" Naruto grinned.

"I think we should let Sakura-chan decide," Neji nodded toward her as her eyes widened. She smiled and pointed to the underground cave Neji had been arguing to go with all along. Kiba sighed, and pushed his hood up. "Fine," he gave in.

"Let's go, and she's right, no more fighting," Shikamaru ordered, as they slowly made their way towards the underground cave us undetectively as they could.

--

The "Enter If You Dare" sign fell to the floor, making a soft 'ping!' sound as Shikamaru broke off the lock of the door that concealed the cave.

The cave was darker and colder then outside. The floor seemed to have puddles of water here and there, which splashed up, coating their shoes every time someone stepped into one. The walls were covered in rough, stone that could cut through skin faster then you could blink and an evil aura engulfed the area.

"So you think this is how he does it? Makes a cave for people to go through so they suffocate to death?" Naruto coughed noticing the fading of the clear air, still managing a slight chuckle.

"I wouldn't put anything passed Orochimaru, that guys twisted," Shikamaru added.

"Byakugan!". Neji scanned the area ahead. It was lit up by torches, and it looked as if there were three paths. One leading straight ahead, one to the right and another to the left.

"We're going to have to split up," Neji informed them, as the Byakugan faded from his eyes.

"What? Why!?" Naruto quizzed him, stopping in his tracks, causing everyone behind him to tumble over.

"Naruto-kun!" Sakura shouted, tugging her right leg from under Neji, who was trying to get Kiba off his hair. Naruto simply grinned "Sorry,".

"There are 3 paths up ahead. We don't know where they lead or how long it'll take to inspect all of them," Neji dusted off his hair.

"Hrm, alright. Neji and I will take the path on the right, Kiba and Akamaru take the path on the left, and Naruto and Sakura go straight ahead," Shikamaru explained, breathing in heavily. They all yes'd, yeah'd and yep'd Shikamaru's orders and proceeded onwards.

The paths all seemed to be different. The one to the right was well lit and looked the least scary. The one on the left was as dark as the cave they had entered, while the middle was neither dark nor well-lit, and strangely enough, remained semi-contrasted without the help of torches and such. The group of genin and the one chunin, all nodded at each other, and set off into their assigned paths.

--

**Sakura&Naruto:**

"S-S-Sakura-chan, can we take a break? It feels like we've been walking for hours," Naruto puffed behind the pink-haired medic-nin.

"Look! The path of this tunnel ends over there, so we can stop there," she smiled sweetly.

Yes, a real smile. So far nothing had gone wrong, and she was beginning to have a positive feel about this mission, though still a part of her was worried about how Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba and Akamaru were doing.

They finally reached the end of the tunnel, and entered a well lit, aristocratic room, with shiny wooden floors. They slowed their pace, as their eyes wandered around the room in amazement. Who knew such a crummy cave would lead to such a well furnished, high-class room?

"Wow..." Naruto gasped as he spun around slowly, plopping himself on the floor as he panted.

"Yeah, wow indeed. Hurry up and rest we need to get on looking for S-S-, well you know who I mean, as fast as we can," Sakura nodded, not making any eye contact with Naruto, a glint of sadness in her eyes as she studied the room.

_-Sasuke-kun- _she whispered in her head.

--

"Orochimaru-senpai?"

"What is it, Kabuto-kun?" Orochimaru asked, not making any eye contact, seeming as if he was only half listening to Kabuto.

"It's about Uzumaki Naruto," Kabuto smiled, as he saw his master's head prop up in delight.

"And?" Orochimaru replied, tapping a finger on his chair, impatiently.

"Well, we investigated, and he's set up camp, not far from here. Oh- and his with some other brats," Kabuto sniggered as if Orochimaru would have thought Naruto was alone.

"Of course, hm," Orochimaru looked down in thought.

It had been a day since Orochimaru had abandoned Sasuke as a student and locked him in the cells. During the time the time he was awake, he had been in deep thought, and continuously asked Kabuto to leave him be as he thought over his decisions. The best idea he could come up with, was to use blackmail to persuade Naruto into agreeing to become his next vessel.

"Sources say, him and 4 others have entered the-,".

"You mean they're already here and you didn't tell me!?" Orochimaru hissed, glaring coldly at Kabuto.

"Relax, they just entered the cave," Kabuto explained folding his arms against his chest.

Orochimaru closed his eyes as Kabuto continued to blink at him cluelessly, waiting for an order. All was silent. Every now and then though, if you listened close enough, you could hear a feint sound of the night rain from outside. **(Yes, it started raining coz I said so xD!)**

Kabuto stiffened as his master's snake-like eyes, set gaze upon him, a smirk making its way open his face.

"Well, lets welcome our guests, the best way we know how," Orochimaru laughed, a laugh so evil that it even made Kabuto shiver.

--

**(A/N: **** Woooo yeaaah!! xD did ya's like it? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? Ok... ill shut up now haha, if you're reading this, thankyou for reading this far! I hope you're looking forward to the chapters to come. REVIIIIIIEW REVIIIEW REVIIIEW PLZ!! FREE HUGS AND COOKIES, YOU KNOW IT ;) xD**

**Hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxo)**


	8. Get The Fox Boy

Sakura paced up and down the room, her footsteps loud and impatient

**(A/N: Lookie here, chapter 8!**** Added some new bits R&R!)**

Sakura paced up and down the room, her footsteps loud and impatient. She didn't know how long they'd been in the room for, but it had been a while.

_-Damn Naruto-kun! When are we going to look for Sasuke__-kun? What if Neji, Kiba or Shikamaru have already found him, they're going to need our help. I knew we shouldn't have split up! This is bad!-_

"Sakura-chan, can you stop doing that? You're making me dizzy," Naruto broke the silence, grinning at her stupidly.

She glared at him, if looks could kill, Naruto would be dead. She marched up to him angrily and lifted him up by the collar of his shirt.

**Inner Sakura:** "I'VE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF WAITING AND WATCHING YOU RELAX WHILE MY SASUKE-KUN HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY EVIL, NOW GET OFF YOUR ASS AND LETS GO LOOK FOR HIM," she shouted, throwing Naruto across the room.

Naruto looked at her with a frightened expression on his face as he rubbed the back of his head. It was rare that she'd ever get pushed so much to the edge and get this scary. He nodded furiously as he stood up, straightening out his clothes, a look of relief appearing on his face as he saw Sakura smile sweetly.

"Sorry, but you were really pushing it," she smiled, as she made her way to the end of the well-lit room, where the door was. Sakura stretched out her arm, resting her hand on the door knob, her thoughts running wild of what could be on the other side. She sighed and told herself it was nothing to worry about, and if anything came her way, she and Naruto could probably handle it.

Sakura's hand trembled as she started to turn the door knob slowly. She stopped for a second and took a glance at Naruto who nodded at her as if to say "just go for it". Stretching her arm, she slowly pushed the door back, a sharp creaking sound coming from the hinges, echoed in the next room. The two genin sighed in relief. No mutated ninjas like Kiba had suggested earlier.

They walked into the narrow room slow paced, scaling their eyes over the stone walls. Naruto frowned at Sakura who was prodding the walls as if she was going to find a hidden door.

"Looking for a hidden passage Sakura-chan?," Naruto teased.

_-Retard - _she sighed inwardly.

"Shut up Naruto-kun," Sakura sniggered, folding her arms across her chest and rotating her right leg to the side.

"I was joking relax," Naruto grinned, extending the sound of the word "relax" in his sentence.

"Shhhh," Sakura ordered, freezing in position.

"Oii, don't be mean Sakura-chan, I told you I was just joki-,"

"Shut up already, I think I heard something," Sakura cut in rotating her head from side to side.

Naruto frowned at her, but remained quite. Suddenly **4 **ninja appeared in front of them. They laughed and spat as they continued to stare at, what they thought were, 'helpless genin'.

"This is going to be a piece of cake," one of them grinned evilly, rubbing his dirty hands together.

"I wonder why Orochimaru-sama doesn't take us as seriously anymore though," another replied scratching the back of his orange head of hair.

"Shut up, as long as we can impress him and do things correctly it doesn't matter what sort of mission it is doofus," another, which looked to be the leader, replied, slapping the previous speaking ninja across the back of the head.

"Ow,".

"Yeah, that's what you get for doubting Orochimaru-sama's orders,".

"So what's the plan?" another asked.

"We don't need one, they're two genin, how hard can it be?". The fourth ninja stated.

"We were supposed to discuss this before we came to attack them!".

"I can't believe Orochimaru-sama put me to work with you numbskulls, I'm outraged!".

"Well atleast we're not arrogant assholes!"

"Assholes are on your butt! And can't be arrogant so in your face!"

"Oh you wanna go there? Ok fine, how this: talk to the hand the face ain't listening!".

"TALK TO THE FINGER THE HAND AINT LISTENING!".

"Well, TALK TO THE FINGER NAIL BECAUSE….uh… the finger ain't listening!" -grin-

"TALK TO MY FEET BECAUSE MY WHOLE UPPER BODY DOSENT WANNA TALK TO YOU!".

"I think that's the winner,".

"I don't think so! I got more,".

"You can't possibly beat a comeback like that, its unachievable!".

"Says who?"

"Says me!".

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"YOU WANNA GO?"

"Go where?"

"Where are we going?"

"We're supposed to fight the genin remember, we cant go anywhere,".

"BAKA'S!"

**(haha, I thought this was funny xD**** I was LOLing when I was writing it, lame, I know haha xD)**

The group of ninja continued to argue stupidly, Sakura and Naruto just frowned at them in disbelief. –sweat drop- Why would Orochimaru send such useless ninja to fight for him?

Suddenly a kunai flew passed their heads and the ninja froze in spot.

"Aww, they cut some of my hair!".

"Boohoo rapunzel!"

Another kunai flew passed them and slashed one of the ninja across his pale skin. He gripped his shoulder and let out a sigh of pain.

"Are you guys done yapping and ready to fight?" Naruto grinned at them, him and Sakura standing back to back, with kunai in between each finger.

"Yeah, yeah, listen you brats, let's finish this quickly. Fox-boy, get here now," the leader of the group ordered.

"You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Sakura smiled, jumping in the air, and darting 5 kunai towards the ninja, they dodged and the kunai hit the stone walls with a soft 'ping!'

"Well apparently you do, throwing kunai, like that's going to kill us," one of the other ninja sniggered.

Sakura frowned, her face fuming with anger. Naruto put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"It's alright Sakura-chan; we'll so kick their ass!" Naruto shouted cheerfully.

Sakura smiled. That's what she liked about Naruto, whenever she or anyone for that matter was in doubt or in a foul mood; Naruto's determined words would always make everything seem better. 4 against 2, even if these ninja seemed dumb and disorganised, that wasn't a good number.

"You won't follow orders? Fine, let's get em' boys," the leader of the group of ninja smirked.

"Remember, just split them up and we'll be fine," the orange haired ninja whispered barely audible.

The sound ninja nodded to each other smirking and stood in position each performing a series of intricate hand seals.

"Hellfire's Wrath!"

"Vines of Fatality!"

"Lethal Whirlpool!"

"Winds of Agony!"

"Elemental Snake Formation!" they all synced.

**(Sorry if those jutsu's sound stupid, I just made them up on the spot! Eeep)**

The attacks entwined with one another, creating a whirlpool of elements, Sakura and Naruto just stopped and stared in amazement at the jaw dropping events. They'd never seen anything like this in their lives and the sight of something so great paralysed them both. The whirlpool soon took the shape of a snake, and it eyed Sakura and Naruto in a vile manner, hissing and darting towards them.

"We gotta come up with something and fast!" Naruto stated the obvious, while dodging an attack from the snake's tail that crashed the ground underneath him, sending pieces of stone up into the air.

"Like what!?" Sakura panicked, shielding herself from the pieces of stone that flew into the air with her arm.

"We need to split up I guess, it's the only way, the snake wont know which of us to concentrate on, plus I'll use my kage bunshin no jutsu," Naruto suggested.

"Well if that's all you've got then ok," Sakura replied, nodding determinedly and throwing a bunch of kunai at the 4 enemy ninja.

The snake moved in front of the ninja before the kunai could reach them and absorbed the attack, hissing loudly. Naruto and Sakura both gasped.

"How the…," Sakura expressed, completely shocked.

She'd expected the snake to be strong, but being able to absorb attacks and not take any damage? She was starting to think there was no way out of this, she and Naruto couldn't possibly handle this and even if they did defeat the snake, they'd have close to zero chakra by the end of it and there were still 4 ninja left to defeat whom probably still have well over half of their chakra left.

"This snake is really pissing me off! Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, 20 clones of himself appearing in the room in a plume of grey smoke.

"…Uhoh, I think we lost the real one! Which ones the real one!".

"Orochimaru-sama is going to kill us!".

"Shut up!" the leader ordered, gesturing something to the snake that only it would understand.

The elemental snake hissed loudly and with one swipe of its neck and tail, wiped out all Naruto's clones, all disappearing in a plume of grey smoke, just as they had appeared.

Naruto gasped once more, clenching his fists so hard they were turning white, raging with anger. Sakura stared at her team-mate in fearful manner as a strong red chakra outlined his body, his eyes turning in red cat-like slits, his teeth looking razor ship. What was going to happen?

"Take a look boys, this is a preview of what the Kyuubi is like," the leader of the ninja smirked.

The ninja all stared in amazement as Naruto continued to transform, the red chakra circling his body faster by the second, his growls getting louder and more rageful. Sakura just stared at him in awe, she didn't feel safe, she felt scared, like anything could happen, that even if Naruto was becoming stronger, it was all wrong. She remembered the last time she felt like this; in the forest of death during the Chunin exams.

She had seen a side of Sasuke she'd never seen before, something so purely evil it chilled her down to the bone, and she was getting the same vibe from Naruto, not as evil, but ten times more powerful then what she had felt from Sasuke; nonetheless still trouble.

"N-N-Naruto-kun p-please stop," Sakura pleaded, practically shaking in fear.

"Stay out of this Sakura-chan, I won't let them take me away and I won't let them hurt you," Naruto growled, jumping up in the air, and aiming a fist at the snake.

Naruto's fist cut threw the snake's body and it soon disappeared, its colourful ash-like remains falling to the ground. He smirked and glared at the 4 ninja, who for some reason didn't really seem bothered at all, especially the leader, who continued to smirk at the fox possessed boy.

"What are you smirking at bastard?" Naruto growled, continuing to glare at the leader of the 4 ninja, who was currently the bearer of a quite malicious expression.

"I see you're still unaware of the Kyuubi's full potential, _too bad_, for you that is," he laughed in response, folding his arms lazily in front of him.

"You'll regret every approaching us!" Naruto roared, running at full speed towards the ninja.

"Now!" the leader yelled, facing the other ninja.

One of them pulled out a silver tranquillizer gun from his back pocket and spun it around his finger, before tossing it to the ninja to his right who caught the tranquillizer gun and took out a green substance from his back pocket; he then loaded it into the gun and tossed it to the 3rd ninja. The 3rd ninja smirked, who let out a teasing "Bye bye" before aiming and shooting straight at Naruto.

"No!" Sakura cried, cupping her hands in front of her lips and looking more traumatized then ever.

The dart flew out of the tranquillizer gun and pierced Naruto's chest immediately, the red chakra began disappearing from his form and his eyes turned back into their normal sky blue selves.

.

"S-S-Sakura-chan...," Naruto mumbled, as he fell to the ground, his body landing on the floor with a loud 'THUD!'.

"Naruto-kun!" she shouted in panic, starting to run towards him. As she did, a trap door suddenly opened in front of her with a loud 'BANG!'. She hauled herself in the opposition direction, as much as she could, wobbling from front to back as she tried not to lose her balance.

_-Shit!-_

Sakura glanced at the wall to the side of her, then to the ground that was on the other side of the trap door. She closed her eyes and sighed, before jumping onto the wall then using her legs, to push herself to the opposite side, landing safely to the floor beyond the trap door. Clutching her chest, she sighed in relief, peering down the trap door to see what looked to be something like a bottomless pit.

_-That was close._

**Inner Sakura:** CHA IT WAS! YOU GO GIRL!-

Sakura smiled at her inner-self before an image of Naruto popped into her head.

"Naruto-kun!" she cried, turning to face Naruto. Was he dead?

"What did you do to him!?" Sakura shouted, a tear streaming down her face.

"Oh nothing, he's just unconscious, nothing for your little pretty head to worry about," the leader of the 4 spoke sarcastically.

"Why are you doing this?" Sakura questioned, trying to find out as much information as possible, while stalling for as long as she could, hoping she'd come up with a plan to save her unconscious team-mate.

"That's none of your business girlie. Boys, pick him up, its time to get our reward and be praised," he responded, looking a bit dazed, as if to be day dreaming about how Orochimaru would repay their victory.

The other 3 ninja's did as they were told, hoisted Naruto on their backs, while one of them did a series of hand seals, and they were gone in a flash.

"Naruto-kun!!" Sakura yelled desperately.

"Catch us if you can blossom," the leader laughed.

Sakura stared at him angrily, tightening her ninja headband, readying herself for battle. She retrieved 3 kunai from her small bag and was ready to kick some ass **(hehe)**. She extended a leg to take a step, only to realise that her foot and the ground never met. Sakura had not paid attention to every detail of the scene and was completely oblivious to the fact that a new trap door had opened up while she was paying attention to the mischievous ninja.

This was it. The fall would surely kill her. Sakura felt tears well up in her eyes. In her heart; she hoped that this wasn't the end, that somehow she'd be saved. She couldn't die now! Not before she'd get to see Sasuke and Naruto again.

_-I won't go down this easily- _she thought to herself, with Inner Sakura cheering her on. She stretched her arms out, trying to find a wall that, while focusing her chakra, she could hold on to so that she could slow her falling speed.

_-Yes!- _she smiled, as she her light-tan coloured hand, made contact with a wall, slowing the pace she was falling, however the smile was short lived, as she lost her balance, and continued to fall at great speed. THUMP.

Sakura widened her eyes, she fell onto something. She wasn't dead! She had this bean bag to thank. Wait, what would a bean bag be doing in a jail cell? Sakura gasped as she came face to face with a boys bare chest, exposed in the light that escape into the cell from the torches outside that lit the room. She had fallen on someone!

_-Ooops- _she thought to herself, biting her lip and regaining her posture and backing away.

"Oh my, I'm so s-s-sorry, I didn't mean-," Sakura stopped mid sentence, as she saw the figure stand up and look into her direction.

"Sorry's not good enough sometimes," the voice spoke coldly, taking a few steps towards her.

Sakura gasped, as she felt a cold hand, wrap itself around her neck, pushing her harshly up against the cold steel bars at the front of the cell. She let out a few light squeals of pain, scrunching up her face, and turning her head to the side. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, she falls into a jail cell, on top of a complete lunatic, who right now, would love nothing more then to kill her.

_-This is it, 3, 2__, - _she cried in her head, feeling the strangers grip tightened. She was going to be strangled to death. Great.

_-1…- _She waited for her neck to be crushed but instead, the stranger retrieved their hand, jumped back, and gasped. Sakura groaned, as she fell to the ground, not making any effort to move.

"Sakura?" the voice mumbled in surprise.

--

**(A/N: ****SO xD I edited this chapter xD I actually liked how it turned out, everything eventually fell into place, I thought it was going to be a pain re-writing it. Hope you like the new part, please review!! Free hugsssssssssss and coooookieeeessss! **

**Hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxo**

**Love,**

**Toxica)**


	9. Unexpected Cell Buddy

(A/N:Chaaaaapter 9

(**A/N:Chaaaaapter 9!! W00t xD R&R plz!!**)

--

"Sakura?" the stranger repeated, clearing their throat.

Sakura's eyes widened. The voice was very distinctive and could only belong to one person she knew. Sasuke Uchiha. Sakura outlined the figure standing in the shadows with her eyes, as she continued to try and take a breath.

"S-S-Sasuke-kun?"Sakura assumed, weakly extending her arm out on the ground in the direction of Sasuke

Sasuke smirked; he knew she'd never forget him. He stepped towards her, his footsteps echoing in the cell, kneeling beside Sakura's weak, fragile body and placing a hand on her shoulder. Sakura trembled slightly at the touch of his slightly rough fingers, gripping her shoulder. Tears of joy & surprise, welled up in her eyes, and fell swiftly down her soft, light-tan cheeks.

"S-Sasuke-kun! It's…so…good…to…see…you," Sakura sobbed lightly, Sasuke's face becoming a blur in the dark as tears continued to conjure from her eyes. Sakura's tears of joy stopped abruptly as she heard Sasuke answer with his signature reply of "Hn," retrieve his hand from her shoulder as he walked over to one of the cell corners.

Sakura locked her eyes on Sasuke as she struggled to get up, rubbing the back of her head. She was back! Yet his expression still remained as if nothing had happened. What was up with him? It's not everyday your ex-team-mate falls from the ceiling and lands right on top of you in a jail cell!

Sasuke pulled out a kunai from his pocket, casually picking up an apple off the ground, and cutting out the rotten bits of it in order to make it somewhat edible. Sakura, still not taking her eyes off him, slowly stepped toward the opposite corner and sat down, hugging her knees close to her, picking at her leg wounds gently.

_-I knew he didn't care, Naruto was lying after all…- _Sakura nodded, agreeing with her thoughts and averting her gaze to the cold, stone ground. No-one made any effort to speak. All that could be heard was the heart wrenching sounds of crying, and an occasional "slice" sound.

Sasuke could feel his heart slowly tear as Sakura continued to cry. _-Say something dickhead- _he thought to himself.

With a great amount of hesitation, the silence was finally broken.

"Sakura… what are you doing here?" Sasuke questioned her in a slightly annoyed tone, still not taking his eyes off his task.

Sakura looked up at him innocently. Once again, she was torn apart, this time, more so. For a while she'd believed that risking her life would be worth while, that maybe when she saw Sasuke, she wouldn't get choked to death, even if it was unintentionally. Deep in her heart she was hoping that out of nowhere, he'd look at her straight in the eyes, and say that he's coming back to Konoha, or even that he loved her, but instead, it was the total opposite. As per usual, he continued to ignore here, and when he did speak, his words were always so cold and lecture like.

Though she was upset, Sakura felt something deep within her, raging towards the surface. She wiped her tears with force and glared at him coldly. Was it anger?

"We came to save you; everyone wants you to come back to Konoha. We're risking our lives for you, Naruto-kun just got taken away, I don't know if he's alive or dead, and you just sit there so casually, it makes me sick," Sakura shouted, making no effort to wipe away the knew tears that were streaming down her face.

"I never asked you to come save me Sakura, I continuously told you's not to come looking for me, is it my fault you're all so stupid?" Sasuke replied calmly, still not bothering to make eye contact as he gently nibbled on his dissected apple.

"Well I'm sorry for ever caring about you Sasuke-kun. I mean _we're_ sorry…," Sakura replied, her voice trailing off and all the anger disappearing from her face. Why couldn't she just stop loving him so much? She risked her life, and all he has to say about it, was how stupid it was.

Silence.

"No answer? That's so typical of you Sasuke-kun, Why'd I ever expect more?," Sakura mumbled, pushing her self up the wall in attempt to stand up, staining the walls with blood from her wounds.

"I-I…." he struggled for words.

Sasuke looked up at her apologetically-like, eyes widening as his attention was averted to the blood mark she'd left on the wall behind her.

"Sakura, come here, I want to check out your wounds," Sasuke commanded, waving his finger, gesturing for her to come forward.

Sakura shook her head, and walked over to lean on the cell bars.

"Just leave me alone Sasuke-kun, please…you won't do anything for me, and the only thing your good at is running away selfishly, so go do that, just leave me alone…I'm sure that's all you want do to anyway, stop acting like you care," Sakura mumbled barely audibly, clutching a wound on her shoulder, breathing heavily and few sweat drops falling down the side of her face from her forehead.

"Sakura…don't-".

"No, you know what Sasuke-kun? I think for once I'm getting slightly sick of this cat and mouse game. I don't know why I bother, I don't know why any of us bother, risking out lives for you," Sakura cut in, her voice remaining at a normal sound level, a slight sound of sadness in her tone.

Sasuke looked at the slim, figure spread out on the cell bars, intensely. Her chest rising every time she took a heavy breath, blood trickling down from her wounds at a slow pace, her unoccupied arm just hanging there, lifeless then ever, tears coating her entire face. What had he done? Perhaps he was the stupid one? Using his left arm, he flipped up off the ground and continued to step towards Sakura at a sloth-like pace.

"Why couldn't I have realised earlier that the selfish, cold hearted, emotionless bastard that you are, will always be exactly that and you just don't care about how anyone else feels. Do you get some sick pleasure from crushing people's hearts into tiny pieces and then watching them cry their heart out in front of you? Tell me Sasuke-kun do you?" Sakura said, crying more then on the night when Sasuke had left Konoha. She retrieved her hand from her shoulder wound and buried her face in her hands, sliding down the cell bars, and hitting the floor with a soft 'THUD'.

_-I swear I'm going to kill Naruto-kun if his still alive, what a liar, I knew it was just so I'd come on his stupid mission- _she thought to herself.

Sasuke froze in his spot, his body trembling slightly, and a single tear falling down his cheek. He tried to speak, but nothing came out, he tried to move, but he was paralysed by her soft screams of agony.

"Why Sasuke-kun, why do you do this too me? Why do I have to feel so bad about caring for you?" Sakura sobbed, looking up at him with her emerald whirlpools of sadness.

Before he had the time to say or do anything, she had fallen asleep, snoring lightly every now and then. Sasuke sat in the opposite corner, his dark gaze not attempting to look away from the body of the pink haired genin.

_-I did it again. Uchiha you asshole, you only ever make her cry, are you happy now?_

**Inner Sasuke:**__Actually it seems that you are rather depressed, and oh, what's this I sense, heartache much?

_Shut up, what's there to be heartbroken about? I made her cry, so? I just feel bad about it…just a little.._

**Inner Sasuke:**__I'm sure when you got caught staring at Sakura during training sessions, a pathetic lie like that could work on Dobe, but I'm you, so don't even try Uchiha.

_Lie? What are you getting at? Can you just go away?_

**Inner Sasuke:**__Don't even pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, as a matter of fact, you're thinking of it right now.

_What? No! I shouldn't feel bad, if she hadn't been a stupid fan girl, then she wouldn't be here in the first place and I wouldn't have made her cry. Hn.-_

Sasuke shook his head rapidly. He was just having a conversation.. With himself. Was he going mad?! He dropped his head into his hands, and rubbed his temples. How long would they be stuck here for?

_-Who am I kidding; Argh, why do I feel this way? I feel like my insides are… argh. I don't think I can take seeing her cry again.. It's just too… painful to watch. Look how cute she looks too… Shut up Uchiha… - Sasuke_ thought, mentally slapping himself, raising his head up from his hands and smirking weakly as he continued to stare at Sakura.

After fidgeting a while, Sasuke sighed, and propped himself up on his knee's, crawling towards the direction of Sakura's lifeless-looking body. She had cuts and bruises everywhere, and her wounds still remained open and bleeding, regardless her face still looked as beautiful as ever in Sasuke's opinion.

Standing up now, he lifted her up bridal style, and walked over to the spot he was previously sitting in. He sat down gently, so that she wouldn't wake up, and rested her on his chest, arms still wrapped around her waist, moving her fringe out of her eyes. Why was he doing this?

"Sakura-_chan_…. I'm…s-s-sorry…" he whispered into her ear, resting his head up on the stone wall. A groan of pain escaped Sasuke's lips as a sudden jolt of pain erupted from his ribs, he'd been so caught up with Sakura that he almost forget he was on the verge of dying.

_-I really am…these passed few days have been... weird…I can't lie to myself anymore, it's all too clear now to hide away from … I-I think I'm finally ready to admit to myself... that I-…l-love..y-you Sakura-__**chan**__- _Sasuke thought to himself, sighing and finally drifting off into sleep.

**(**A/N: **Nawww, that's cute, I reckon anyways haha xD! Don't that make a fabulous couple? Now as you can see Sasuke is trying so hard to deny his feelings for her, he's even lying to himself, but he knows that ever since they met, they've always been there xD, that's my idea of it anyways haha. Notice that when he's talking to her "chan" is in italic and when his thinking to himself its bolded, that's because Sasuke doesn't ever add that to her name, so yeah xD REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!! PLZZZ!! FREE HUGS AND COOOKIES AS ALWAYS!! They're rainbow cookies this week! So get your reviews in for RAINBOW COOKIES!! xD!**

**Hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxoxox**

**Love,**

**Toxica)**


	10. Naruto's New Sensei? Huh?

(A/N: Alright, well most of you's want me to continue writing, so that's what I'm going to do, I hope it's not to boring for you all, I'm open to suggestions

**(A/N: ****woot woot Chapter 10! remember to review!! Coz I like reviews xD)**

Sakura blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to clear the blur to regain proper vision. As her vision became clearer, she sighed in disappointment as her surroundings became obvious. She was hoping that it was all a dream, but to her dismay, it was all very real. She yawned, wiping the sweat from her forehead. She assumed it was morning, because it felt like she had slept for a fair long time. Sakura stretched her arms behind her, trying to come in contact with a wall so she could help herself up, instead, her hand wiped against a toned, sweaty body.

"No way…," she whispered to herself, turning her head around and coming face to face with a sleeping Uchiha.

Gasp.

_-__How'd this happen?! Did I…oh no, I don't remember falling asleep here! Aww he looks so cute! Sakura No! Don't think like that, he's a bastard! A hot one…Sasuke-kun...- _she sighed, battling with her mouth, trying her hardest not to smile.

She sat there, still confused, but not making any effort to move. The feelings of disappointment within her, made Sakura want to get up and slap him across the face, but her feelings of affection held her back, making her want nothing more than to snuggle back into her previous position. It seemed no matter how upset and mad she was at him; she couldn't deny the fact that she kinda took a liking to this.

_-No- _Sakura shook her head, sliding further away from him and leaning up against the wall. She continued to stare at the Uchiha, every now and then getting distracted by his toned chest which rose every time he took a breath. As she continued to stare, she could feel her cheeks radiating with heat, and quickly jerked her head the other way. She inwardly smiled, but froze at the sound of a male voice.

"I'm going to have to start charging you by the minute soon," Sasuke spoke suddenly; a minor chuckle added onto the end of the sentence.

_-Oh no…__ Act tough!-_ Sakura thought to herself, eyes widening in surprise.

"What the hell are you going on about Uchiha?" Sakura replied, whirling her head around to face him, trying her best to hide the jitter in her voice and the pink in her cheeks.

Sasuke smirked; no matter what she said or did, he'd caught her red-handed. Sakura continued to glare at him best as she could, before letting her head drop, gaze averting to the ground and her cheeks tinting a dark red. Sasuke decided to let it go- for now, as he continued to stare down at the obviously blushing genin.

The sound of silence filled the air, both ninja hesitating to speak, each waiting for the other to break the silence. Sasuke stretched his arms behind him and let out a quite sigh.

"You know, you could have stayed if you wanted to, I don't mind," he smirked, hoping that Sakura would look up so that he could stare into her eyes and tease the blushing kunoichi further more.

Sasuke gloated over the fact that she fell into his 'trap' as he spotted the movement of Sakura lifting her head, but her expression was a bit more then he expected. She glared at him so intensely that he felt as if her eyes were burning holes into his skin and that any second now she was going rise up and punch him straight through the wall.

He jerked his head to the side, his eyes averting to the steel cell bars that reflected the image of the outer room, his eyes hypnotised by the dancing fire that resided in the iron wall torch. Sakura smiled inwardly, she didn't think she could hold up her tough-act anymore, but in the end Sasuke was the one that finally gave in, and her embarrassment was masked.

The two endured further silence, then suddenly Sakura decided it was her time to speak.

"What makes you think I wanted to stay…?" she sniggered, doing the best smirk she could as she crossed her arms and legs, not bothering to look at Sasuke, as if he didn't matter at all to her.

"Hn," was all Sasuke replied, deciding her response was a bit delayed and turned his attention back to himself. Sakura pouted as the 'Hn' echoed slightly in the jail cell.

_-He probably wasn't even listening to me…-_

Sasuke let out a barely audible grunt, as he played around with the bandages that were wrapped tightly around his arms. Ever since he was abandoned and chucked into this cell, neither Orochimaru nor Kabuto ever came to speak to him. He had wondered wether they had forgotten that he was severely injuried and came to the conclusion that it wasn't that they had forgotten, they just had better things to do or didn't care, and Sasuke was sure that even if Kabuto was ordered to check up on him, he wouldn't.

Sakura eyed the raven-haired boy with wonder, as he continued to play with his bandages. Without thought, she limped over and kneeled down beside him.

She stripped the Uchiha's left arm of bandages and examined it carefully. She bit her lip in concern as she looked down at his battered arm. The wounds, they we're pretty brutal, why hadn't anyone given him medical attention sooner? Why was he even here?! Shouldn't he be out somewhere training with Orochimaru? Sakura pushed her curious thoughts to the side for the moment and focused chakra to her hands. Soon enough, her hands were glowing with green chakra. Sasuke arched an eyebrow as he watched the pink-haired apprentice medic-nin go to work on his other wounds as well, and before he knew it, he felt healthier then ever, with only exhaustion standing in his way.

Sakura dusted her hands off comically and shot a smile at Sasuke before returning to her former place in the cell. She smiled to herself as she watched Sasuke flip his head from side to side examining his mended body.

_-See Sasuke__-kun, I've changed- _she thought to herself. That was true, Sakura had indeed changed and improved _slightly_, but the need to impress Sasuke still remained, as well as her love for him, even if she refused to show it in this present time.

"H-how'd you learn that?" Sasuke cleared his throat; continuing to eye his body where the wounds had been.

"Never you mind, its just a little something I picked up since you've been gone," Sakura replied, the proudness disappearing from her voice as she spoke the last 4 words.

Sasuke tensed up, noticing the change in her voice. More than anything he wanted to apologise about everything he'd ever done to Sakura, and express truthfully how he felt about her, but whenever he'd gotten enough courage or found himself feeling as if he was about to explode if he lived one more second with her not knowing, a image of Itachi appeared in his head, and he knew that he could not live a life with her, knowing that his brother was still roaming around somewhere. He needed to do this, even if he would break his and Sakura's heart in the process, but he was hopeful that she wouldn't fall out of love with him.

"Sakura-chan….," Sasuke began, waiting to hear the soft sound of Sakura's voice in confirmation that she would allow him to speak further.

Sakura lifted her head up lazily and locked a gaze with Sasuke. He gasped slightly as he could see the strain in her face from holding back the tears she wanted to release so bad. She shook her head and pushed up a smile from her lips, which were previously in a pose to match her frown.

_-He called me Sakura-CHAN- _She giggled to herself inwardly, she wasn't expecting that at all.

"Y-y-yes Sasuke-kun?" she stuttered.

Sasuke relaxed his muscles, as her smooth voice escaped her lips, sounding like music to his ears.

"I-," he began but was interrupted by the big 'bang!' the main door to the cells made.

Both of the genin jumped up in surprised as their eyes layed upon two lean ninja, who busted into the room with force. They were dressed in many dark colours, each with a vest, like those of the Jonin of the Konohagakure, but in shades of black and purple. They had headbands, but the symbol of what village they came from was hidden under their black fringes.

Sakura glanced at the two ninja; one twisted a key ring, with the cell key attached to it around his finger. He shot an evil glance at Sakura, and placed the key in the middle of his palm. Seconds later, he re-opened his palm, letting out an evil cackle and to Sakura's surprise, the key had completely melted. The other laughed along as well and patted his comrade on the back for his attempt in scarying the caged genin, he then closed his eyes and concentrated deeply.

The ninja shouted a few words before punching his fist into the steel bars. They crumbled on impact and fell to their feet. He smirked and the two ninja proceeded into the cell.

Sasuke & Sakura exchanged expression as the two unknown ninja, stood in front of them, folding there arms and cackling like lunatics every now and then. One seemed to be a ninjutsu user, while the other seemed to be a taijutsu expert.

"Orochimaru-sama requests your presences," the taijutsu user hissed.

Sasuke and Sakura barely had time to process what the ninja spoke; immediately they were knocked out and disappeared in a puff of smoke, right after the ninjutsu using ninja formed some hand seals.

--

Neji blinked rapidly, a bright light shone on his face, and it was rather annoying. He raised one of his bandaged arms, and shielded his eyes, moving across to a more shadowed area of the room.

_-Where am I? - _He thought to himself, darting his eyes around the room in wonder.

"Glad you're finally awake Sleeping Beauty," Kiba smirked, shooting a glance at Neji.

"Where are we?" Neji asked.

"Hell if I'd know, some room… where you can't use chakra based techniques and anything else is useless, so theres no point in making up an escape plan, how troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, as he paced around the area with his hands in his pockets.

"Shikamaru-kun!" Neji and Kiba synched.

Shikamaru smirked. "Yeah, I've been testing out this place, while you two we're snoozing. Did anyone listen to me when I said this would be a drag ages ago? No,".

"What do you mean chakra based techniques can't be used?" Neji asked, ignoring Shikamaru's 'drag' remark and trying to get out of his just-woken-up daze as quick as possible.

"What I mean is, every time you use a ninjustu technique, chakra is drained from you up to three times more of the amount it took to perform the jutsu and the chance of taijutsu working is highly unlikely," Shikamaru explained, stretching one arm behind his head.

"How could this happen?! Trust Orochimaru to create a freak show room like this. How'd we even get here? I don't remember fighting anyone," Kiba spoke with an angry tone.

"It's Orochimaru we're talking about, he has his ways," Shikamaru replied, slurring his words, looking as if he was preoccupied with his own thoughts.

"We must have been knocked out or something along those lines, they would have had to be pretty skilled ninja to get passed my Byakugan and Kiba and Akamaru's sense of smell," Neji added, frowning as he darted his eyes around the room looking for some sort of escape.

"The moment we find Orochimaru, Akamaru and I are going to kick his ass; not just for Sasuke's sake, but for ours too!" Kiba shouted, raising his fists in anger.

"You know for not liking Naruto-kun that much you sure are starting to develop his sense of determination and short-temperedness, guess a bit of him rubs off on everybody," Neji smirked, looking at an angered Kiba.

"Shut up, I just thought this would be a lot easier and I think I'm going to have to agree with Shikamaru-kun on this, IT'S A DRAG," Kiba exasperated.

"Wait, you didn't think we would be able to just walk in here grab Sasuke-san and run? Theres traps and very skilled ninja crawling around this place," Shikamaru replied, breaking out of his thoughtful state.

"We didn't even have time to execute our plan because we were to busy with those damn caves," Kiba complained, staring directly at Neji as if to say 'It's your entire fault'.

"Don't look at me, it was Sakura-chan's decision in the end," Neji said in response to Kiba's glare.

Shikamaru frowned at the two, who were now having another heated argument; rather Neji was throwing witty comments around calmly while Kiba shouted furiously at the Hyuuga boy. He shook his head and walked over to the two, spreading them apart before it got worse.

"Calm down will you's, we'll get out of here, we've been in worse situations," Shikamaru pointed out, trying to keep peace between the two.

They all exchanged expressions, Neji and Kiba simultaneously brushing off Shikamaru's grip on their shoulders and walking away in the opposite direction of each other. Shikamaru sighed; kneeling down to the ground and placing his hands in his signature 'deeply thinking' pose.

He had to think of a plan before anything got worse.

--

"We should go after them," Lee suggested, as the group sat around the camp fire silently. It was a cold, gloomy morning, and everyone had their doubts about how Naruto and the group were. Were they ok? Did they find Sasuke? Did they manage to convince Sasuke to come back?

More silence.

"Well?" Lee asked a hint of annoyance in his voice this time.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, it might take a long time to find them and who knows what we'll encounter in doing so," Shino finally spoke, gazing intensely at a bug that was resting on his index finger.

"S-S-Shino-kun's right, I'd h-hate to see anyone get h-hurt," Hinata nodded, not making any eye contact, as she bit on her toast.

Lee sighed, and rested his head on his hand, waving away the food Chouji had offered him.

"I'm sure they're a fine, it's a great team!" Chouji mumbled in between bites of his food.

"Yes they are a great team but shouldn't they been finished by now?" Lee argued trying his hardest to get someone to agree with him.

"Lee-san, Orochimaru is a very skilled shinobi, if you expect them to be done in less then one night, then you're mad. We'll be lucky if they finish in the next 3 days," Shino explained in his usual mono-tone, still not taking his eyes off his bug.

"D-d-do you think they're o-ok?" Hinata stuttered, negative thoughts invading her mind as she continued to think about what Lee had said.

Shino turned his head and looked at down at his lilac-eyed team mate. He knew she was worried about Naruto. Shino gently layed a hand on Hinata's shoulder, and nodded at her.

"Yes Hinata-chan, I'm sure they're fine," he assured her.

A subtle smile spread across Hinata's face, and she nibbled a corner of her toast.

"But," Shino began turning towards Lee.

"If you're having doubts, I don't see any harm in setting up a rescue or attack plan of some sort,".

Lee clapped his hands together in triumph and stood up as fast as he could.

"We'll start after breakfast," Shino instructed, returning his gaze back to his bug, which was now joined by another similar looking bug.

_-Naruto-kun… I hope you're ok…- _Hinata sighed.

_--_

Naruto flinched as the large grandfather clock to his right chimed loudly. He shook his head and looked around the dark room bewildered, trying to regain his memory of what had happened and why he was currently chained to a wall. A short while later his memory had returned and he remembered his and Sakura's fight with the 4 dim-witted ninja. As dim-witted as they were, they sure had an awesome jutsu. He grunted loudly as he pulled with all his might to unchain his arms from the wall.

"That won't work you know, that chakra is tougher then steel," a sly voice spoke.

Naruto shifted his eyes to the front and looked for the person who had spoken. Out of the shadows emerged Kabuto, arms folded against his chest, glasses glinting in what little light the room had and an evil smirk upon his face.

"Where's Orochimaru?! And Sakura?!" Naruto roared at Kabuto, who always seemed to be in a better mood when seeing people in discontent.

"Oh so it's Orochimaru-sama that you're wanting to talk to is it? Well then, you are the new apprentice, so I don't see why not," Kabuto replied sarcastically, walking towards a black steel door to the left and knocking on it with force, completely ignoring the 'Sakura' part of Naruto's spoken sentence.

Naruto heard a voice answer to the knock, but couldn't quite make out what exactly the person had said. Once again the blonde was trying to escape from his binds, but failed.

"Naruto-san wishes to speak to you," Kabuto said in a polite voice, one Naruto had recognized as the one he had used during the Chunin exams.

Naruto continued to switch his glare from Kabuto to what he could see from beyond the door.

Gasp.

Naruto's eyes flickered with anger and hatred as the obvious figure of Orochimaru entered the room. He was dressed in a long black velvet robe, different from his usual attire. His white skin illuminated in the dark and as he walked slowly closer towards the blonde, a charm hanging from his neck made reflections of light ping around the room as it clashed with what little light the room had.

Naruto stopped squinting as Orochimaru came into range, his gaze still locked onto the floor.

"So Naruto-kun, Kabuto-kun tells me you were curious to meet your new sensei," Orochimaru spoke, his sentence ending with a cruel, cold laugh.

Naruto frowned. _–Why do they both keep saying Orochimaru's my new sensei!?-_

Orochimaru noticing the confusion dwelling among the anger in Naruto's expression, stepped towards him, eyeing him with his snake like eyes.

"Oh dear, Kabuto-kun, please tell me you didn't forget to mention our arrangement to Naruto-kun here," Orochimaru tutted sarcastically, bringing a finger to his chin and resting it there.

"What arrangement? What the hell are you talking about?!" Naruto growled once more, his voice echoing in the room.

"Oh well, guess I'll tell you then. You're now looking at your new sensei," Orochimaru spoke, stopping mid-pacing, looking at Naruto maliciously with his snake-like eyes.

Those eyes. No matter how fearless you were, there was something about Orochimaru's glare that would scare anyone. They pierced through you like needles, feeling as if they were invading your mind and you were completely transparent, you try to break the gaze but you just can't help but to continue staring. Alluring and deadly.

Naruto wasn't having any of that; he continued to stare deeply into Orochimaru's eyes with as much anger and hatred as he could project. Orochimaru smirked, turning around and walking to a mahogany chair up at front of the room.

"You are not my sensei and you never will be you bastard! I feel sorry for anyone who ever had to have you as their sensei, baka," Naruto shouted his voice filled with more rage then it had ever had.

Orochimaru stopped in his tracks. Of course he'd been spoken to a lot harsher then that, but never by a little brat knucklehead like Naruto, in Orochimaru's opinion Naruto didn't have a high enough status for Orochimaru to have given him that right and be able to let it go easily.

Orochimaru's mouth was carved in a sneer as he let out a slight chuckle. Naruto's angered expression switched with a look of a shock as he saw Orochimaru's neck extend and dart its way towards him.

Seconds later, Naruto was gasping for air as he felt Orochimaru's snake like form tighten its grip on him. Orochimaru smirked as he watched Naruto fidgeting, every now and then a few grunts of pain escaping his lips. He hovered above Naruto's ear and hissed "Speak to me with as much disrespect again, and I'll make sure your friends die the most painful deaths imaginable,". With that, Orochimaru swiftly unwrapped himself from the blonde and returned to his body.

Kabuto smirked and clapped at his master's sadistic actions. Orochimaru gestured him to stop as he muttered something to himself on his way to his chair.

"I don't care what you say, you are not my sensei and you never will be, I'll fight you both if I have to, either way, I won't follow your orders and I will get teme back," Naruto vowed, taking long breaths. He wiped a line of blood that was trickling down the side of his mouth, with his shoulder, and continued to glare at Orochimaru angrily.

"Oh Sasuke-kun? Do whatever you want with the weakling; I have no use for him anymore," Orochimaru smirked, tapping his foot on the ground slowly.

"What?! What did you do to teme?! Naruto yelled, still trying to break free from being chained to the wall, but failing every time.

"Well you see Naruto-kun, unlike you; Sasuke-kun is weak, shame to the Uchiha's I say. He doesn't have enough hate after all, and he continuously seems distracted, I was such a fool to waste my valuable time on him, hm," Orochimaru explained, pressing his lips together as if he had just tasted a very sour lemon.

"Teme is not weak! Don't talk about him like that you scum!".

"Naruto-kun, if you're going to be my student, you have to learn to stop calling your sensei such bad names, it's no good," Orochimaru smirked sarcastically.

_-Argh what a dick! I need to get out of here, but how, think Naruto, think- _Naruto thought to himself.

"Now let me finish. I don't know how I neglected the thought of you being the vessel for the Nine Tailed Fox, but a few days ago it came to mind, and pondered on the subject. No matter how much training Sasuke-kun goes through and no matter how many strength enhancing elixirs he drinks, he will never carry the strength of the Nine Tailed Fox," Orochimaru explained.

Naruto continued to glare at him, but didn't bother to speak; he wanted to hear the rest of what Orochimaru had to say.

"So, as you see, I have decided that you will be my new student. Just think about it Naruto-kun, with my help you can learn how to completely control the Fox's chakra and become stronger, and I guarantee you power, you could finally be Hokage and feared by many, then one by one me and you will take over each village, and rule everything," Orochimaru cackled a cruel laugh, a wide grin plastered on his face.

"NO! Are you retarded? I just told you I will never be your student! And I will be Hokage one day, even without your help! Believe it!" Naruto growled.

"Well one things for sure, you're not short on stubbornness," Orochimaru chuckled staring at an agitated and angered Naruto.

"I will say this to you one last time before I start taking drastic action. You will become my student Naruto-kun, and if you refuse, I will kill off all of your friends as slowly and painfully as can be until you agree, because, we all know how important they are too you, hm?" Orochimaru pouted sarcastically, before letting out a malicious cackle.

Naruto gasped. For once in his life, he found himself speechless. One wrong move and it could mean the death of one of his friends.

"Kabuto-kun, take Uzumaki to Sasuke-kun's old room, and keep him there until he makes up his mind," Orochimaru smiled, disappearing back into the chamber he emerged.

Kabuto nodded and performed a few hand seals, transporting Naruto's now unconscious body to Sasuke's old accommodation.

--

**(A/N: Chapter 10- COMPELTE! Ooooo, do you think Naruto will agree? xD I mean, his friends lives are on the line, hehe, things are getting quite interesting if you ask me. PLZ REVIEW!! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!! THIS CHAPTER AND THIS CHAPTER ONLY NOT ONLY DO YOU GET FREE COOKIES AND A HUG YOU GET… drum roll THE ABILITY TO PERFORM ANY ONE JUTSU YOU WISH!! THAT'S RIGHT! SO PLZ REVIEW! xD haha wouldn't that be cool xD**

**Hope you's are well xoxoxoxoxoxox**

**Love,**

**Toxica)**


	11. Oh My Kunai!

"Brats," a ninja chuckled, dropping the two bodies to the floor and slamming a heavy looking wooden door behind him

**(A/N: Chaaaaaaapter 11 xD! If you've read this far, thankyou so much xD and please leave reviews! I added in a little make out scene in this chapter, so I hope you's like it xD)**

"Brats," a ninja chuckled, dropping the two bodies to the floor and slamming a heavy looking wooden door behind him.

Sakura sat up urgently. "Wait! Weren't we meant to see Orochimaru?" her voice trailed off, a scared expression plastered on her face.

She sighed and rubbed the back of her head. Trust the ninja's working for Orochimaru to be just as wicked as him. He'd dumped her body so hard and carelessly on the ground that she was sure a bruise was in the making. Sakura looked around the room a glint of hope in her eyes, atleast they weren't in a jail cell anymore, this room was better. There was light! And the wooden floorboards were much more comfortable to sit on then rough stone. She turned to her right and jumped at the sight of Sasuke, for a moment, she'd forgotten about him.

Sakura's eyes widened as she studied his features. Now that they were in better lighting; she could see all of Sasuke, not just bits and pieces of his face and body depending on how the light entered the room. She bit the side of her lip and looked down at the shiny wooden floorboards, blushing.

_-Oh my god,__ I forgot how hot he was! Those alluring eyes and that sexy smile and don't even get me started on his body!-_ Sakura squealed in her head.

_-Wait, no, what am I doing?! I sound like a fan girl...Like Ino! He can probably tell what's going on too; I bet his watching me right now just 'hn-ing' in his mind about how pathetic __I am. Besides, aren't I meant to be mad at him?- _Sakura shook and sprang her head up, her eyes directly looking into Sasuke's.

Sasuke smirked at the sight of the pink darken in her cheeks as they continued to gaze at each other. Even though he'd never admit it to himself, he felt his cheeks radiate with heat, and get hotter every second he continued to look at her. The smirk faded from his face and he couldn't stop himself from studying her as well.

Her emerald eyes, so innocently gorgeous, he'd never seen anything like them before and every time he'd look away, Sasuke found himself wanting to stare into them again. Her shoulder length, cherry blossom tresses, which looked soft as ever. That cute smile that he remembered would appear on her face every time Team 7 had a training session; he yearned to see it again.

Sakura followed the raven-boys eyes as he continued to study her, she gulped at the realisation that he was indeed looking at her. Immediately, Sakura sat up and started playing around with her hair, she assumed that it had gotten messy considering all she'd been through. After that she straightened out her clothes and folded her hands neatly on her lap, wandering her eyes around the room, acting as if she didn't notice he was checking her out.

Sasuke continued to look down, from her neck, to her chest, to her waist. He sighed and turned his head to the side. He longed to hold her, but the chances of that ever happening were slim to none because firstly, they'd probably never get out of here, secondly, that was probably the last thing Sakura wanted right now (so he assumed) and thirdly, he didn't see himself admitting to her how he felt until Itachi was dead.

Silence.

"W-what were you, uh, going to- never mind," Sakura hesitated, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger, scaling her eyes over the wooden floor.

"Tell me," Sasuke replied demandingly, turning to the front of him.

_-She's so...b-beau..__- _Sasuke mentally slapped himself before he could finish his thought.

"No, it's nothing, I'm sure what you were going to say wasn't anything important anyway…," Sakura sighed, letting the strand she was wrapping around her finger, fall to the side of her face, then pushing it behind her ear.

"Hn… so that's what this is about?" Sasuke asked, sitting himself closer to Sakura.

Sakura froze as she felt an Uchiha presence surround her; she turned to her side and saw Sasuke, who bumped into her shoulder accidentally, apologising, and then moving way back slowly. –_Uhoh-_ she thought, placing her delicate hand on her cheek and turning away from the boy. She was blushing- again, this time, worse then ever.

She nodded in response to Sasuke's words and continued to face away from the boy. He frowned and nodded to himself, thinking that she was probably still mad at him for what happened the previous night, her little outburst; he'd never seen that side of her before, and deep down he felt awful that he was the reason that it had surfaced. No matter how tough she acted, Sakura was a delicate person emotionally.

"Well, you're right, it was...nothing important," Sasuke mumbled, folding his arms against his chest and closing his eyes, as if to try and relax.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said in a gentle tone of wonder.

"Hn," Sasuke replied to inform Sakura he was listening, opening one onyx eye.

"Not that it's any of my business, but why are you here? I mean, why aren't you with Orochimaru?" Sakura questioned, now staring deeply into the Uchiha's onyx eyes.

Sasuke sighed, and ran a hand through his black spikey hair. He didn't want to have to tell Sakura what was really going on; what would she think of him if he said that Orochimaru had called him weak and that he'd rather Naruto as 'vessel'? He had a reputation to maintain.

"Hn, you're right, it's none of your business," Sasuke snapped, glaring at Sakura as cold as he could, so that she wouldn't dwell on the subject any longer.

_-Yeah, he totally hasn't changed- _Sakura thought to herself rolling her eyes.

She peeled herself off the floor and started pacing around; every now and then she'd catch Sasuke looking at her and giggle inwardly whenever he'd quickly turn away.

"Do you atleast know a way out of here?" Sakura asked, an annoyance added to her tone, crossing her arms and tapping her foot on the ground impatiently.

"I wouldn't try anything if I was you, this place is just…trouble," Sasuke replied, continuing to chase Sakura with his eyes.

Sakura sighed and dropped her arms to her sides, then sitting herself directing under the spot she was standing.

_-I wonder how Neji-kun, Shikamaru__-kun and Kiba-kun are doing. Oh and Naruto-kun! I hope he isn't dead! I have to save them, but I'll never get out of here, this is bad- _

It hadn't crossed her mind lately because she was distracted by Sasuke, but now that they were sitting in silence; her mind had time to sort through some thoughts. Sasuke looked at her intensely, as he saw an expression of sadness take hold of her. He put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her intensely.

_-Ok, I'm going to do this; I'm really going to apologise to her. No. Yes. No. Yes. NO. OK!-_ Sasuke argued with himself.

"Sakura-_chan_… I'm sorry…,".

Sakura lifted her head in surprise. There was a look in his eyes; something she'd never seen before, was he for real?

"That's not funny," Sakura advised him, folding her arms and arching an eyebrow at Sasuke.

"I wasn't trying to be funny, I'm serious," Sasuke nodded genuinely.

"Ok, but do you even know what you're sorry for, or are you just saying that to make me happy?" Sakura sighed.

"Just…everything," the raven haired boy replied, staring at Sakura apologetically.

"Well that's a convincing answer," Sakura snigged sarcastically, turning her head to the side.

"You're not listening," Sasuke sighed, removing his hand from her shoulder and resting it on his knee.

"Oh, I'm not listening? Do I even have to say it again Sasuke-kun? Were you listening when I told you how much I loved you? Did you hear the hurt in ever tear that I cried? No, you just walked away," Sakura argued, jerking her head back towards him.

"I know… that's why I'm sorry…," Sasuke mumbled.

Sakura stared at the Uchiha deeply.

_-Whys he doing this?_

**Inner Sakura: **BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU! Woot Woot! Go Sakura!

_P__lease, now is not the time-_

It was a whole side of him Sakura had never seen. His voice didn't have its usual arrogance to it, but instead was soft and serious. The look in his eyes weren't the usual glare that went along with his smirk; it was a sad frown, a look of helplessness and hurt. His lips remained in a straight plump line.

"Why are you doing this?" Sakura asked, not being able to hide the spring in her tone. She was hoping that her inner self was right, that he was in love with her.

"Because... I love you," Sasuke admitted, in a very low voice.

"Huh? Speak louder," Sakura replied, putting a hand to her ear, gesturing him to speak up.

"I mean, uh…I just don't want to see you upset, and what I did was wrong…" Sasuke cleared his throat.

_-That was close- _he thought to himself, although a big part of him almost wished that she had heard what he had actually said.

"Oh…,".

"Yeah, no big reason, you're my team-mate... or...were and I just don't want to see you upset. I needed to apologise," Sasuke added, feeling guilty due to the fact that the startof the sentence was a lie.

Sakura sighed glumly, feeling as if his words had split her heart asunder. As she continued to stare at the floor blankly, a few tears slithered from her eyes, and kissed her cheeks. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't put a stop to her tears.

_-Baka! You made her cry again. Why can't you just do something right for once?__ Screw it. I've got a show her how I feel, even if a little bit, this is driving me insane...- _Sasuke nodded to himself nervously.

**Inner Sasuke: **Kiss her.

_Not you again! I can't believe I agree with you for once, but will that be enough?_

**Inner Sasuke:** -sigh- Oh wow, you're asking me for advice now? Well, just do what comes naturally, she'll appreciate the gesture.

Without hesitation, he slid over to the pink-haired kunoichi and slipped a hand under her chin, lifting it up delicately with two fingers. Sakura opened her lips to speak; Sasuke however, countered her move and put his index finger to her lips. "Shhh," he whispered.

He smirked, as he saw the surprise in Sakura's eyes, she had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next.

She didn't stop trying to speak though, her lips brushed against his fingers as her words came out of her mouth harshly.

"Your so confusing Sasuke-kun, you just argh! Make me so upset and then its like-,"

Sasuke swiftly moved his head closer to hers, until he crashed his lips with hers. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, but didn't dare argue with what had just happened. A few closed lipped kisses occurred, before Sakura parted her lips, giving Sasuke permission to enter.

Not a moment later, the two were kissing passionately, both fighting for dominance with their tongues. Sasuke wrapped his hands around Sakura's slim waist and pulled her closer, holding her tightly with what seemed like no intention of ever letting go. Sakura had one arm pushed up against the Uchiha's toned body, gripping gently on his six pack every now and then, while the other arm rested behind his neck, running her hand through his spikey black hair.

Their stitched lips grew apart. Sasuke placed one closed lip kiss on Sakura's mouth before kissing along her cheek softly, then guiding his lips down to her neck. Sakura moaned lightly, as Sasuke continued to nibble and kiss her neck all the way down to her collar bone, pulling her even closer. His warm breath on Sakura's skin delighted her, causing shivers done her spine and another light moan to escape her lips. Sasuke worked his lips back up to hers and kissed her passionately once more, feeling the beauty through her lips, before pulling apart.

The two looked at each other, each breathing heavily. Sasuke smirked, trying to catch his breath and hide the smile that wanted to take control of his lips; he'd never been that intimate with a girl before, he'd never even loved a girl before. This was all new to him, and he assumed that it had also been for Sakura.

Sakura sat there still surprised at the event that took place. Her eyes glowed with gladness as she outlined her slightly swollen lips with her finger. She took one more glance at Sasuke, then turned to the opposite direction; blushing.

"Sorry about that, your nagging was driving me crazy," Sasuke joked, braking the silence, speaking for the very first time since their kiss.

Sakura turned her face towards the raven-haired boy, her cheeks still pink as ever, and a few tears streaming down her face. Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw her tears. What had he done wrong now? The Uchiha continued to stare at her in distress until her saw the hugest version of her signature smile arise from her lips.

He felt his heart melt into the ground; he'd been waiting the longest of times to see her smile. For once, she was crying, because she was happy, not because he'd torn her heart apart.

"W-w-what was that f-f-or? I mean- what was it _**honestly**_ f-for?" Sakura stuttered, still so utterly shocked that she could barely speak, yet completely ecstatic.

"You'll find out sooner or later," Sasuke sighed, running a hand through his spiky hair and thinking back on Itachi.

Because of Itachi, Sasuke couldn't even enjoy the after math of one lovely kiss with the girl he loved more than anything in the world. He wanted to hold Sakura in his arms so bad, but if he got closer to her now, she'd be ten times as heartbroken when he would have to venture out to kill Itachi, and he **would **have to. As always he couldn't be with Sakura until Itachi was dead, it just didn't feel right to him.

Sasuke needed to kill Itachi, and fast.

**(A/N: What did ya think? **** Too much?? Would a simple kiss have been better? xD I know it's a boring strictly Sasuke-Sakura chapter, but I wanted to write something a bit lovey dovey between them, but not EXTREMLEY lovey dovey, just normal xD because theres still more of this story to go xD! That was my first time writing a make out scene so I hope it was good enough xD REMEMBER PLZ LEAVE REVIEWS!! You'll get a hug and a free cookie and and and annnnnnnd for this once only, A FREE SLURPIE! W00t w00t! Aren't you excited? Well, yes go review points to review button haha **

**Hope yous are well xoxoxox**

**Love,**

**Toxica)**


	12. Word

A/N: This is about THE most boring chapter of this story and the most boring chapter I have EVER written, but it needed to be written so one thing can lead to another hehe, so don't get to bored :P the following chapters will be better, coz I've decided

**A/N: This is about THE most boring chapter of this story and the most boring chapter I have EVER written, but it needed to be written so one thing can lead to another hehe, so don't get to bored :P the following chapters will be better, coz I've decided to change them from how they were originally written. R&R plz :)**

Orochimaru smirked as he placed his eyes upon 2 Konoha genin and the 1 chunin. One looked careless and tired as if he didn't want to be there, yet that was the sort of behaviour that makes you not want to underestimate him. The other looked at the floor angrily, petting a small dog that rested in his arms, he looked like a hot-head, it was possible that anything could set him off. The third, was juggling a sharp kunai with his hands, his white eyes in deep thought.

"Friends with Uzumaki Naruto, ne?" Orochimaru spoke slyly, allowing his footsteps to now be heard by the three.

They all looked up simultaneously, a look of surprise, anger and annoyance flickering in their eyes. Kiba dropped Akamaru gently onto the floor and flipped himself off the ground, angrily heading over to where Orochimaru was standing. Neji swiftly jumped up in front of him, shaking his head in disagreement to Kiba's planned actions.

"Get out of my way Hyuuga, or I'll kill you and that bastard!" Kiba spat angrily, trying to push Neji to the side.

The Hyuuga ducked and sprung himself behind the angered boy, holding the kunai he was juggling earlier to Kiba's neck, pressing it gently into his skin. The coldness of the kunai sent a shiver down Kiba's spine and a perplexed expression creeped onto his face.

"What are you doing!?" Kiba asked agitatedly; sweat dropping from his forehead, which was partly hidden under the hood of his parker.

Akamaru looked up at the two and whimpered in fear. Shikamaru opened one of his eyes sleepishly and sighed. He didn't want to have to get involved in this again.

"I won't put our lives at risk because you're a hot-head, flea boy, are you blind? That's Orochimaru," Neji explained his actions calmly.

"Yeah, so? I'm going to kick his ass," Kiba replied, creating a fist with one of his hands and punching the other.

"Do you want to kill yourself baka?" Neji snapped, now getting slightly irritated.

"Neji-san's right, calm down. We need to think rationally," Shikamaru spoke in his usual blunt mono-tone voice.

Neji smirked and slowly slid the kunai away from Kiba's neck, pushing him back on the floor next to Akamaru.

"I hate it when they gang up on me like that," Kiba sighed under his breath.

"Like to answer my question now?" Orochimaru hissed, tapping his finger on his forearm impatiently.

"And that was?" Shikamaru smirked.

"You are the friends of Uzumaki Naruto, ne?".

"Of course, you know I'd expect someone like you who everyone fears to be a little bit more wise," Kiba chuckled lightly.

"Shut up you dim-witted little brat," Orochimaru snapped back angrily, stamping his foot on a ground.

Orochimaru's snake eyes ran along the 3, examining them closely. They didn't look like much of a threat if it had to come down to fighting them.

"Why are you here?" Neji asked calmly, looking questionably at Orochimaru.

"Ah, well, I've proposed an offer to Naruto-kun, and well, lets say, I'd like to discuss it with his friends," Orochimaru smiled evilly.

"What?" Shikamaru frowned, pushing himself up from the wall he was leaning on with his leg.

"I don't normally do this sort of thing so you should consider yourselves lucky," Orochimaru smiled maliciously. "I mean, of course I don't have time to be sitting around conversing with brats like yourselves, so I'll make this quick. I have asked Naruto-kun to be my new student, however if he opposes my request, I will be killing you all one by one until we see eye to eye,".

"WHAT!?" Kiba eyes widened, raging towards Orochimaru again. Neji snatched Kiba's wrist hastily and pulled him back slamming him into the wall.

Orochimaru grinned evilly as he fed off the discontent on all their faces.

"I told you, calm down. So this is what you were planning," Neji frowned at the proud villain.

"That hurt you asshole," Kiba groaned, rubbing the back of his head firmly.

"Don't trouble your puny little minds with what I just told you, alright? Everyone has to die sometime, it's a way of life," Orochimaru sniggered, his robe swaying from side to side and hovering just above the ground as he began to walk away.

"Wait. What about Sasuke-san?" Neji squinted as Orochimaru's figure began to fade away.

"You'll find out eventually, or not, however if I was in your position I'd worry a little more about myself and little less for Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru replied, a wicked laugh escaping his lips as he vanished.

"This is bad, that guy is such a drag," Shikamaru sighed, looking a bit annoyed, and sitting himself on the floor; trying to process the current events where Orochimaru had revealed his malevolent plans.

"What are we going to do? We can't just sit here," Kiba grunted angrily, stating the obvious.

Neji activated his Byakugan and inspected the room carefully, he knew there had to be an opening somewhere, a weak spot, everything had a weak spot. He made sure to inspect every last detail of the room, and then finally he'd found the 'weak spot' he was looking for.

_-Bingo- _he thought, his lips curling up into a microscopic smile.

"I think I've got a plan to get out of here, however- we've only got one shot, so we have to do this faultlessly," Neji announced, turning his head back to face Kiba and Shikamaru as the Byakugan faded from his eyes.

"We're listening," Kiba smirked, nodding his head and rubbing his hands together enthusiastically.

Shikamaru nodded visibly and crossed his arms, letting out a long drawn out sigh.

--

"How does requesting back up fit in with our plan?" Chouji mumbled, shoving down a chip after chip from the packet.

"I'm surprised you'd miss the obvious," Shino replied, once again playing with his bugs.

"What do you mean Shino-kun?" Lee frowned, splashing some water on his face and wiping it with a purple towel Hinata handed to him.

Shino sighed. "Do you think theres even a chance we can succeed in fighting Orochimaru's ninja? Especially without someone who can assess the situation properly?".

All three nodded in realization.

"Is t-t-the message almost r-ready?" Hinata questioned.

"Soon Hinata," Shino nodded facing her.

He could practically see the apprehension projecting out of her ever since Lee had expressed his doubts and as her team-mate, it was his job to make sure that she knew everything was going to be ok, or so he hoped.

**2 days later back in Konoha:**

"Kakashi! It's time for our next challenge! You're one point ahead of me but that won't matter after this round!" Gai spoke, punching his fists in the air out of enthusiasm, unaware that his 'rival' was paying absolutely no attention to him other then the fact of knowing that he was actually there.

"Hm?" Kakashi responded, turning from his book and lazily arching an eyebrow at Gai.

"KAKASHI! You like making a fool out of me don't you? DON'T YOU!? Aha! But after this round, it is you who will be the fool!" Gai boasted, giving a thumbs-up in Kakashi's direction.

Kakashi carefully closed his pervy paperback and tucked it away in his green vest; bringing a hand up and yawning as he did. He turned his head to the left lazily and stared at his 'rival', disinterestedly, who still stood in his grinning-thumbs-up-pose.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Kakashi exhaled nosily, crossing one leg over the other as he leaned on the wooden railing of the bridge.

Gai: _-sweat drop-_

"Kakashi, Gai," Asuma greeted them, crushing a cigarette in between his lips as he walked over and stood next to the other two jounin.

"Yo," Kakashi nodded, drumming his fingers rhythmically on the railing of the bridge.

"You know, you'd be a lot healthier if you ran a mile for every cigarette you smoked, you should quit" Gai coughed trying to clear his throat of cigarette smoke while waving away some of the smoke that had began to cloud around him.

"Did you ever think I might like smoking?" Asuma smirked before opening the side of his mouth and letting some smoke escape.

Kakashi chuckled at Gai's disgusted expression and pushed himself up off the bridge railing.

"So, is there something you wanted to talk to us about?" Kakashi questioned, studying the expression under Asuma's smirk.

"Uh…yeah, actually there is," Asuma replied, sweat dropping from his forehead.

"Well! Hurry it up! I don't have time to stand around all day, lots of training to do!" Gai boasted, a curious glint appearing in his eyes.

Asuma dropped his smoky cigarette to the floor and stamped his foot down with force. He then desperately looked in a pocket in his green vest and pulled out another tobacco filled stick; which he puffed on nervously after lighting it. Kakashi frowned as he studied Asuma's actions carefully; he knew this was what Asuma usually did before releasing some big news, bad or good, the reason; well he didn't know, but it was a habitual thing he assumed.

"I have word that Shino is requesting back up," Asuma nodded, more smoke escaping his lips.

"Why, what happened?" Kakashi's eyes widened; his first thought being his team had gotten themselves into trouble- well what was left of his team.

It was clearly stupid for Tsunade to ever let Naruto go on a mission with a few other genin without allowing a person with a fair bit of battle experience to tag along, but it was too late to say or do anything when they had heard of the mission, so all sensei's viewed it as a test and hoped that everything would go as planned.

"Kakashi, Gai, Asuma- Hokage-sama requests your presences," Kotestu bowed formally.

--

"Thankyou for coming, I expect you are all aware of the message we have received from Shino?" Tsunade spoke, lacing her fingers in front of her and resting her chin on top.

"Vaguely," Kakashi replied, staring at Tsunade with his sleepy gaze.

"Shino? No, I wasn't aware," Kurenai spoke, arching an eyebrow.

How was it that someone from her team had sent out a message and she had not been the first to hear about it? She was rather annoyed but decided to bite her tongue and listen to the details before saying anything.

"What exactly did this message say?".

"It was pretty clear-cut," Tsunade explained, rising from her chair and walking over to a mountain of unfinished paper-work.

She snatched a white note from on top and scanned through it before returning to her seat and taking a second to stare at all four Jounin in front of her.

"Here it is, though this isn't the original copy of the message. Izumo had a limited time to write down the message before it disappeared," Tsunade said, waving the piece of paper from side to side before scaling her eyes of the note once again,

.

"Disappeared? What do you mean?" Gai frowned, his eyebrows looking more unkempt then ever.

"Shino's bugs seem to have many purposes," Tsunade smirked thrusting the paper forwards so that the jounin could take a closer look.

"Uh- what's this?" Asuma questioned, pointing to a few letters and numbers that were written chaotically and barely readable under the actual message.

"Directions," Tsunade announced, gesturing for Shizune to pour her some tea.

"What do you suppose we do?" Kurenai asked, handing the note back to Tsunade when she was done examining it.

Tsunade leaned her chin on her laced hands again and pressed her plump lips together thoughtfully. She wasn't quite sure 4 jounin would be enough 'back up' for a mission like this, and unfortunately every other jounin was out on a mission; there was nothing else she could do, this was a risk she had to take for the mistake she had made.

After a while, Tsunade exhaled nosily and eyed all four jounin.

"Kakashi, Gai, you will be team one, joining you will be Tenten. You will be leaving as soon as possible, here are the directions, I want you to head to this location immediately, and find out as much information about the situation, no distractions what so ever, got that?".

Kakashi received another duplicate of the message and directions from Shizune as he and Gai nodded in sync.

"Asuma, Kurenai, you will be team two, joining you will be Yamanaka Ino. You will be leaving AFTER team one has left. Your objective is to look for clues of some sort along the way so you may take your time in getting to the destination but responsibly. Do you comprehend?" Tsunade ordered, thrusting another duplicate of the message to Shizune who handed it to Kurenai.

"Hai," the two synced.

"Kakashi, Gai, wait for team two to arrive to the destination before you's decide to take any action, it is very crucial that both teams works together," Tsunade nodded, a look of fear and hope glinting in her eyes.

The four jounin nodded and turned away making their way to the door Shizune was holding open. Before they had completely exited the room, Tsunade spoke once more.

"By the way," she began, waiting to catch everyone's attention. "Good luck,".

**A/N: I promise it gets better from here because unlike what I usually do, a few hours ago I actually sat down and thought what I was going to do with this story and I came up with some very interesting stuff that was better then what I had originally written so thank god for half of the story getting mysteriously wiped off my PC xD! **

I'VE GOT A QUESTION TO ASK YOUs**- So I read on wikipedia that Asuma and his father (third Hokage) had a falling out apparently and never really patched things up, SO is that true? And what happened between them? It'd be great if you could answer coz I really need to know for the next few parts of my story :)**

**PLZ REVIEW IF YOU COULD, reviews mean a lot to me and um, suggest something you want to see happen perhaps? –points to review button- DO IT! Free cookies and hugs as always BEST IN THE WORLD hehe :) virtual ones, of course haha.**

**Hope you's are well**

**Love,**

**Toxica**

**xoxoxoxox**


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